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WAR    OF    THE    METALS. 


WASHINGTONIANA. 


MEXICO,  HAWAII  AND  JAPAN 


By  THEODORE  W.  MOVES, 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  WASHINGTON  BOARD  OF  TRADE. 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C. : 

THOS.  W.    CADICK,   PRINTER. 

1899. 


N27W 


CONTENTS 


•  CURIOUS  PHASES  OF  THE  WAR  OF  METALS.  P8Ke. 

Free  Coinage  Magic 2 

Curiosities  of  Repudiation 6 

Demonetization  of  Wampurn,  or  the  Crime  of  1661 11 

Shy  lock  Workmen  and  True  National  Greatness lt> 

WASHINGTON1ANA. 

Speech  at  Board  of  Trade  Reception,  February  20,  1894 21 

Speech  as  President  of  the  Washington  Board  of  Trade,  at  the 
Board's  Annual  Reception,  at  the  Arlington,  February  24, 
1898 24 

Speech  as  President  of  the  Washington  Board  of  Trade,  at  the 
Board's  Annual  Shad  Bake,  at  Marsnall  Hall,  May  21,  1898  29 

Speech  as  President  of  the  Washington  Board  of  Trade,  at  the 

Annual  Reception,  February  23,  1899 34 

Speech  as  Prefcident  of  the  Washington  Board  of  Trade,  at  the 
Annual  Shad  Bake,  May  6,  1899 39 

Report  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Library,  of 
the  AVasbington  Board  of  Trade,  March  27,  1894,  and  brief 
sketch  of  the  origin  and  development  of  the  Washington 
Public  Library 44 

NOTES  OF  TRAVEL  IN  MEXICO,  HAWAII,  AND  JAPAN. 

Mexico's  Wonders 56 

Aztec  and  Spaniard 65 

Modern  Mexico 73 

A  King  Among  Trec-s 82 

Mitla's  Ruins 91 

Nikko's  Great  Day 101 

Japanese  Jingoism 115 

Japan  and  Hawaii 126 

Hawaii's  Crisis 142 

A  PPEN  DIX. 

FINANCES  OF  THE  NATIONAL  CAPITAL  PARTNERSHIP. 

Annual  Report  as  President  of  the  Washington  Board  of  Trade. 
1898. 


CURIOUS  PHASES  OF  THE  WAR  OF  METALS. 


The  free-silver  oracle  speaks  through  a  double  headed  idol 
like  (he  god  .lainis  of  Roman  mythology.  One  head  fares 
the  mining  camps  of  the  Kocky  .Mountains:  the  other  over 
looks  the  farms  of  the  Middle  West  and  South.  Through  its 
I  wo  sets  of  lips  the  oracle  speaks  with  contradictory 
ton-ues.  To  the  silver  owner  in  the  Kockies,  directly  and 
spiM-iti.-ally.  and  indirectly  to  frightened  creditors  every- 
where, it  proclaims:  "Independent  free  coinage  at  ID  to  1 
will  double  ih"  market  price  of  silver  over  all  the  world  and 
enrich  the  bullion  owner  without  cheating  anyone  else!"  To 
farmers  and  to  debtors  it  declares:  "Free  coinage  will  not 
double  the  world  price  of  silver,  but  by  substituting  for  the 
gold  dollar  a  depreciated  and  depreciating  silver  dollar,  it 
will  raise  prices  for  the  benefit  of  the  farmer,  and  by  cheap- 
ening money  it  will  render  easier  the  payment  of  debts!" 

Through  one  head  the  oracle  predicts  an  impossibility  to 
deceive  and  conciliate  the  honest,  and  through  the  other  it 
proclaims  the  truth  in  a  shape  to  tempt  the  dishonest.  The 
end  is  held  to  justify  the  means  in  making  converts  to  the 
religion  of  free  silver  and  in  swelling  the  throng  of  worship- 
i-rs  before  the  double-headed  idol. 

If  the  declaration  that  free  coinage  here  would  raise  the 
price  of  silver  to  $1.29  per  ounce  over  all  the  world  were 
taken  seriously  and  generally  believed,  the  silver  shrine 
would  be  promptly  abandoned  by  the  great  mass  of  its  de- 
voters.  Such  belief  might  prevent  honest  men  from  utterly 
destroying  in  righteous  indignation  the  abhorrent  image, 
but.  on  the  oiher  hand,  it  would  rob  the  idol  of  attractive- 
ness, except  for  the  silver  owner,  and  leave  him  almost  a 
solitary  worshiper  at  a  deserted  altar. 


FREE-COINAGE  MAGIC. 


Jugglery  by  Which  Silver  Is  to  Be  Doubled  in  Value- 
The  Midas  Touch  of  Uncle  Sam— Why  Confine  the 
Wonder -Working  Power  to  the  White  Metal?  — 
Some  Suggestive  Questions. 

[The  Washington  Star,  Oct.  2S,  1SSM>.] 

If  independent  free  coinage  at  10  to  1  will,  as  Mr.  Bryan 
insists,  permanently  double  the  value  of  silver  over  all  the 
world,  a  single  legislative  act,  performed  on  Capitol  Hill,  will 
cause  instantaneously  the  Mexican  dollar  to  buy  twice  as 
much  as  it  now  does,  not  only  in  this  country,  but  in  London 
and  Paris  also.  The  Indian  rupee  will  buy  twice  as  much  as 
at  present,  not  only  in  Bombay  and  London,  but  in  St. 
Petersburg.  The  vast  deposits  of  silver  in  the  mines  of  Mex- 
ico will  be  instantly  doubled  in  value.  The  national  debt 
of  Mexico,  payable  in  gold,  will  be  in  effect  cut  in  half  be- 
cause the  Mexican  silver  in  which  it  is  to  be  paid  has  ap- 
proached by  that  much  nearer  to  the  value  of  gold.  "NVithout 
inconvenience  to  ourselves  we  will  have  caused  the  hoarded 
si  her  of  the  Mexicans,  the  Hindoos  and  400,000,000  China- 
men, though  buried  in  the  earth,  to  know  100  per  cent,  of  in-, 
crease.  Every  piece  of  silver  in  the  world,  in  ore,  bullion, 
ornament  or  coin,  will  feel  the  magic  influence  of  our  value- 
expanding  edict,  and  at  the  Midas  touch  of  Uncle  Sam  will 
assume  a  double  share  of  the  characteristics  of  gold. 

If  we  thus  have  power  to  work  miracles  and  to  spread 
comparative  opulence  among  the  humble  homes  of  more 
than  half  the  people  of  the  world,  the  question  arises,  why 
should  we  limit  our  beneficence  to  the  extent  of  merely 
doubling  the  wealth  of  the  silver  Hindoo,  Chinaman  or  Mexi- 
can, by  fixing  the  coinage  ratio  at  16  to  1?  If  we  can  double 
the  world's  market  value  of  silver,  we  can  quadruple  it,  or 
multiply  it  by  eight  or  by  sixteen.  There  is  no  reason  why 
\vc  should  be  wedded  to  the  ratio  of  16  to  1.  It  does  not 
appear  that  precisely  this  coinage  ratio  ever  prevailed  in  any 
country  in  any  age  of  the  world.  The  "money  of  the  Consti- 
tution" is  sometimes  misleadingly  referred  to,  but  the  first 
coinage  ratio  under  the  Constitution  was  15  to  1,  and  it  was 
also  the  carefully  estimated  commercial  ratio,  on  which 


basis  the  constitutional  ratio  would  be  about  31  to  1  at 
the  present  day.  We  are  told  that  in  early  Bible  times  sil- 
ver was  treated  as  equal  in  value  to  gold,  the  ratio  being  1 
to  1.  Why  not  restore  the  money  and  ratio  and  parity  of 
the  Bible  rather  than  the  alleged  ratio  of  the  Constitution, 
thus  giving  to  silver  its  scriptural  value  before  even  the  most 
ancient  of  the  European  gold  bugs  began  their  fiendish  work 
of  appreciating  gold  at  the  expense  of  silver,  and  thus  bless- 
ing the  silver  owner,  small  or  great,  of  Mexico,  India,  China 
and  all  the  world  by  increasing  sixteen  fold  his  metal's  pur- 
chasing and  debt-paying  power? 

TURNING    SILVER    INTO   GOLD. 

If  Uncle  Sana  is  to  play  King  Midas  he  will  appropriately 
enact  the  part  in  a  truly  royal  style.  He  will  certainly  not 
be  content  with  a  beggarly  appreciation  of  silver  to  the  ratio 
of  16  to  1,  and  will  undoubtedly  at  the  very  least  convert  all 
the  silver  outright  into  gold  at  the  ratio  of  1  to  1,  even  if  he 
finds  himself  able  to  confine  his  magic  touch  to  silver  and 
to  refrain  from  changing  our  wheat,  corn  and  potatoes  into 
gold. 

There  are  still  other  ratios  which  might  find  advocates. 
There  is  the  Columbian  ratio  of  10£  to  1,  which  prevailed 
at  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  America,  and  which  may  per- 
haps be  entitled  to  consideration  as  the  original  American 
ratio.  Outside  of  this  sentimental  consideration  it  is  to  be 
urged  in  favor  of  this  ratio  that  the  resulting  dollar  will  be 
most  convenient  in  size  and  weight  for  use.  The  16  to  1  dol- 
lar is  too  bulky  for  popular  use.  A  31  to  1  dollar  at  the 
present  commercial  ratio  would  be  unendurable.  A  1  to  1 
dollar,  of  the  size  and  weight  of  the  gold  dollar,  would  be  too 
small,  though  it  is  probably  selfish  to  take  into  account  this 
detail,  when  the  blessings  are  considered  which  we  are  to 
shower  under  this  ratio  upon  the  world  at  large.  A  lOJ  to 
1  dollar,  the  true  Columbian  dollar,  would  be  a  little  larger 
than  the  present  half  dollar,  making  a  very  convenient  coin 
for  popular  use. 

If  we  can  raise  the  value  of  silver  over  all  the  world  to  any 
increased  price  for  it  that  we  announce  as  to  be  paid  at  our 
mints,  then  most  assuredly  we  should  adopt  for  the  world 
the  Bible  ratio  of  1  to  1  with  all  the  powerful  arguments  in 
iis  favor,  or  the  Columbian  ratio  of  10|  to  1  with  sentimental 
considerations  and  a  convenient  coinage  size  and  weight  to 
plead  for  it. 


The  question  arises,  however,  when  we  find  that  we  can 
wirh  impunity  disregard  scornfully  the  world  price  of  silver 
and  by  legislative  act  fasten  a  new  price  for  silver  upon 
all  the  nations  of  a  tributary  earth,  why  should  we  confine 
our  price-fixing  power  to  silver?  Why  should  we  not  ex- 
tend it  to  some  commodity  of  which  individual  Americans 
produce  more  and  which  they  more  generally  possess?  If 
by  an  act  of  legislation  we  can  double  the  world  price  of  sil- 
ver, why  not  likewise,  by  Congressional  enactment,  double 
tin-  world  value  of  wheat,  corn  and  cotton? 

If  the  world  price  of  silver  is  increased  by  free  coinage  to 
$1.1*1)  per  ounce,  as  Mr.  Bryan  promises,  the  mine  owner  will 
pocket  an  additional  profit  of  04  cents  on  every  ounce  mined, 
an  annual  minimum  gain  to  existing  American  mine  opera- 
tors alone  of  over  $::r>.imo,0<)0. 

DOUBLING  SILVER'S  PRICK  ox  01  I;>KI.VES. 

*i 

The  theory  advanced  by  Mr.  Bryan,  which  maintains  that 
by  free  coinage  here  silver  will  be  doubled  in  price  over  all 
the  world,  treats  free  coinage  as  a  purchase  of  the  silver  by 
the  (Jovernment  for  a  fixed  price  at  the  mints.  You  and  I 
and  all  the  other  taxpayers  of  the  United  States  supply  the 
money  which  is  to  be  thus  expended,  and  the  question  arises, 
why  should  we  who  produce  and  own  no  silver  double  the 
price  of  silver  upon  ourselves  when  we  wish  to  buy?  How 
does  it  benefit  us  who  do  not  sell  silver  to  have  it  cost  more? 
\Vliy  should  we  take  this  $.'i5,000,000  from  our  national  tax 
money — already  insufficient  to  supply  our  current  needs — 
and  hand  it  over  voluntarily  and  unnecessarily  to  the  silver 
owners,  who  make  a  handsome  profit  now  in  selling  their 
silver  for  one-half  of  what  we  insist  upon  paying  them  here- 
after? 

Under  the  Sherman  act  we  bought  silver  to  be  coined  into 
money.  How  did  that  business  operation  differ  from  Mr. 
Bryan's  proposed  purchase? 

We  paid  under  the  former  only  the  commercial  value  of 
the  silver:  under  the  latter  it  is  proposed  that  we  double  the 
price,  ("nder  the  former  the  coinage  was  limited  with  the 
purpose  of  confining  it  to  American  silver  or  to  an  amount 
which  could  be  maintained  at  a  parity  with  gold:  under  the 
latter  coinage  would  be  unlimited.  Under  the  former  the 
coinage  was  on  the  <  Jovernment's  account,  all  taxpayers 
profiling  by  the  difference  between  the  commercial  and  the 
coinage  value  of  the  silver;  under  the  latter  the  coinaire 


5 

would  be  on  individual  account  and  the  profit  or  seigniorage 
goes  lo  the  silver  owner  instead  of  to  the  nation,  (he  aggre- 
gated taxpayers. 

If  \ve  are  no!  satisfied  with  our  experiments  under  the 
JMand  and  Sherman  acts,  and  wish  to  add  more  silver  dollars 
to  our  currency  than  can  be  supplied  from  the  millions  of 
silver  bullion  already  bought  and  lying  in  the  Treasury 
vaults,  why  not  buy  (he  bullion  for  ourselves  and  earn  for 
ourselves  the  seigniorage?  Why  insist  upon  enriching  the 
silver-owning  class  at  the  expense  of  the  masses,  the  taxpay- 
ers of  the  United  States? 

Is  American  shrewdness  at  striking  a  bargain  totally  lost? 
If  we  are  going  to  offer  to  buy  the  four  billions  of  silver  of 
the  world,  why  do  we  offer  to  pay  twice  what  we  can  now  get 
it  for  in  the  world's  markets,  and  defend  ourselves  solely  by 
saying  that  it  will  be  worth  the  double  price  just  as  soon  as 
we  offer  to  pay  that  amount  for  it? 

For  Uncle  Sam  to  make  an  extravagant  guess  at  the  price 
which  silver  will  bring  after  he  has  "reraonetized"  it,  and 
then  insist  upon  paying  that  double  price  for  it  now,  and  to 
offer  to  buy  all  there  is  in  the  \vorld  at  that  price,  when  he 
can  get  all  he  wants  for  half  of  that  price,  is  to  entitle  him- 
self to  a  dunce's  cap  of  the  very  largest  size. 

I>ut  the  role  which  Uncle  Sam  is  really  expected  to  fill  is 
not  that  of  fool,  but  knave.  Independent  free  coinage  will 
array  him  not  in  the  cap  and  bells,  but  in  the  striped  suit  of 
a  convict  in  the  court  of  nations.  For  the  overwhelming 
majority  of  the  1.6  to  1  advocates  accept  the  truth  that  free 
coinage  will  not  double  permanently  the  world  price  of  sil- 
ver, but  by  depreciating  the  dollar  will  raise  prices  and  ren- 
der easier  the  paj'ment  of  debts. 

All  financial  experience  suggests  that  under  free  coinage 
there  would  be  enough  temporary  rise  in  the  price  of  silver 
to  bring  great  gains  to  silver  owners,  especially  to'  specula- 
tors, to  the  money  handlers  and  money  changers,  to  "a  class 
at  the  expense  of  the  masses,''  and  a  sufficiently  speedy  de- 
cline to  cheat  creditors  for  the  benefit  of  debtors  and  to  ex- 
pose the  nation  to  all  the  evils  of  a  depreciated  and  depre- 
ciating currencj7. 


THE  DEBTORS'  CHANCE. 

Curious  Phases  of  the  Problem  of  Repudiation— Effect 
of  Changing  Ratios  — Taking  Revenge  in  1896  for 
the  "Crime  of  1873"— The  Wolf  and  the  Lamb. 

[The  Washington  Star,  Oct.  29,  1896.] 

Independent  free  coinage  at  16  to  1  would  benefit  debtors 
only  by  swindling  creditors.  Every  man  to  wrhom  a  dollar 
is  now  due  would  be  compelled  to  accept  for  it  one-half  of 
that  amount.  American  debtors,  including  the  nation  itself,, 
would  go  into  fraudulent  bankruptcy  at  fifty  cents  on  the 
dollar  or  thereabouts,  indelibly  staining  the  credit  of  the 
nation  and  that  of  every  debtor  in  it. 

The  charge  of  dishonesty  in  free  coinage  at  16  to  1  is  met 
by  the  allegation  that  the  gold'  standard  dollar  has  appre- 
ciated since  1873  until  it  is  now  a  200-cent  dollar  and  needs 
depreciation  itself  by  one-half  to  be  rendered  honest. 

The  theory  of  gold  appreciation  has  been  thoroughly  dis- 
cussed in  the  campaign,  and  in  the  opinion  of  the  sound- 
money  men  has  been  exploded.  But  there  is  another  branch 
of  the  discussion  on  this  point  which  has  not  been  so  fully 
or  so  satisfactorily  explored. 

If  it  were  possible  to  demonstrate  that  gold  had  appre- 
ciated, as  alleged,  this  demonstration  would  not  suffice  to 
prove  that  the  half-value  silver  dollar  under  unlimited  free 
coinage  at  16  to  1  would  be  an  honest  coin. 

If  debtors  have  been  gradually  robbed  for  more  than 
twenty  years  by  a  dollar  appreciating  slightly  though  with 
fluctuations  from  year  to  year,  the  evil  and  crime  are  not  to 
be  remedied  by  wholesale  robbery  of  the  creditors  of  to-day, 
by  a  sudden  and  large  depreciation  of  that  dollar.  One 
crime  does  not  justify  another.  There  is  no  retributive  jus- 
tice in  the  crime,  since  the  persons  to  be  robbed  to-day  are 
not  the  robbers  of  the  last  twenty  years. 

Because  A,  a  debtor  of  fifteen  or  ten  years  ago,  was  swin- 
dled to  an  almost  inappreciable  amount  through  gradually 
appreciating  money,  therefore  B,  a  creditor  of  to-day,  should 
be  swindled  out  of  47  per  cent,  of  his  due  by  a  sudden  depre- 
ciation of  the  money  in  which  he  is  paid.  This  is  the  silver 
view  of  compensation.  All  creditors  are  grouped  together 


and  all  debtors  are  grouped  together  without  regard  to  the 
years  in  which  they  lived  and  are  arrayed  against  each  other 
like  the  Indians  and  white  men  of  old  times  on  the  frontier. 
If  a  white  man  killed  an  Indian,  the  Indians  would,  in  retail 
at  ion,  kill  the  tirst  white  man  whom  they  met.  The  creditors 
of  to-day  are  to  be  robbed  47  per  rent,  because  the  debtors  of 
i  he  '"(is  and  '80s  may  have  been  robbed  2  or  3  per  cent., 
though  the  debtors  of  the  '70s  who  suffered  this  small  rob- 
bery are  in  many  instances  the  creditors  of  the  '90s  whom  it 
is  proposed  to  plunder  of  half  their  due  in  retaliation  for  the 
previous  robbery  committed  in  part  upon  themselves.  They 
are  thus  plundered  both  going  and  coming. 

A  debtor  vendetta  is  declared  against  all  creditors,  lasting 
from  generation  to  generation,  without  regard  to  individual 
<  hanges  in  the  composition  of  the  two  classes,  or  even  of 
changes  in  the  course  of  years  from  one  •  lass  to  the  other. 

THE    Of  UK    FOR    AlMMIKt :  I  ATION. 

The  cure  for  the  evils  of  a  fluctuating,  appreciating  money 
is  not  to  substitute  a  depreciated  fluctuating  money,  but  a 
steady,  unfluctuating  currency,  neither  appreciating  nor  de- 
preciating. Any  swindle  perpetrated  upon  the  debtors  of 
1873  is  not  satisfied  by  swindling  the  creditors  of  1896.  The 
statute  of  limitations  has  probably  run  against  the  previous 
swindle.  In  any  event,  we  cannot  showr  our  abhorrence  of 
an  old  rascality  by  resorting  to  a  new  one.  The  dubious  and 
infinitesimal  crime  of  1873  does  not  justify  the  vast  proposed 
crime  of  1896.  Xor  would  the  one  justify  the  other  if  that 
of  1873  wrere  the  greater. 

To  cure  the  alleged  evils  of  an  appreciating  money  of 
twent}*  years'  development  we  are  asked  to  endure  the  cer- 
tain evils  of  a  depreciated  and  depreciating  money  to-day. 
Discarding  as  unreliable  a  constantly  lengthening  financial 
yard-stick,  shall  we  substitute  instead  of  a  stable  measure, 
one  that  is  constantly  shortening?  The  evil  of  a  changing 
money  standard  is  not  to  be  remedied  on  the  homeopathic 
principle4  that  like  cures  like.  It  is  only  in  the  nursery 
rhymes  dedicated  to  Mother  Goose  and  other  members  of 
the  Goose  family  that  the  wise  man  who  has  scratched  out 
his  eyes  by  jumping  into  a  bramble  bush  conceives  the 
brilliant  idea  of  jumping  into  another  bush  in  order  to 
scratch  them  in  again. 

If  on  account  of  the  imagined  mysterious  affinity  between 
the  price  of  silver  and  all  of  the  commodities  except  gold  the 


s 

apparent  depreciation  of  silver  is  really  an  appreciation  of 
gold,  and  the  gold  dollar  has  been  appreciating  in  value  since 
1S73  until  now  it  is  a  200-cent  dollar  and  needs  to  be  cut  in 
two  in  order  to  enable  a  debtor  to  pay  equitably  a  debt  con- 
tracted in  1S73,  it  is  evident  that  this  depreciation  of  tin- 
dollar  is  just  only  in  the  case  of  the  creditor  of  187:5.  The 
debtor  of  no  other  year  has  had  each  dollar  of  his  debt 
doubled  upon  him.  The  number  of  debts  still  existing  which 
\\cre  contracted  in  1873  or  in  the  adjacent  years,  when  on  the 
silverites'  theory  our  dollar  was  worth  approximately  100 
rents,  is  infinitesimal,  and  they  are  nearly  all  corporation 
indebtednesses,  railroad,  governmental  and  municipal,  due 
from  wealthy  and  powerful  debtors,  whose  credit  was  strong 
enough  to  maintain  long-sustained  indebtedness,  and  who 
made  such  profitable  use  of  the  borrowed  money  that  they 
might  be  supposed  able  to  pay  the  extra  interest  or  bonus 
represented  by  the  alleged  appreciation  of  the  dollar  of  pay- 
ment. Against  the  debtors  of  1873  and  thereabouts  (not  one 
per  cent,  of  the  entire  number  of  debtors)  who  will  be  justly 
treated  by  depreciation  of  the  dollar  to  fifty  cents,  if  gold 
has  really  done  all  the  fluctuating,  are  to  be  placed  all  other 
creditors  than  those  who  loaned  in  1873  or  thereabouts,  who 
will  be  swindled  in  a  constantly  increasing  amount  as  the 
date  of  their  loans  approaches  the  present  day.  Statistics 
show  that  the  bulk  of  existing  debts  not  yet  due  were  con- 
tracted within  the  year,  and  that  only  the  most  insignificant 
fraction  is  older  than  five  years,  which  is  the  maximum 
limit  of  western  real  estate  mortgages. 

RESULT   OF    FLUCTUATING    RATIOS. 

The  assumption  that  silver  has  remained  uniform  in  value, 
and  that  our  gold  dollar  has  done  all.  the  fluctuating,  works 
out  some  curious  results,  if  accepted.  It  is  not  always  the 
debtors  who  have  been  defrauded  even  on  this  theory.  The 
depreciation  of  silver  or  the  appreciation  of  gold  has  not 
been  continuous.  Debtors  who  obtained  loans  in  '80,  '87, 
'ss  and  'S9  and  paid  in  1890,  for  instance,  paid  in  cheaper 
dollars  than  they  gave,  and  defrauded  their  creditors,  in 
stead  of  being  defrauded.  The  ratio  of  silver  to  gold  in  188G 
was  20.78  to  1;  in  'S7.  21.13;  in  '88,  21.99;  in  '89,  22.10,  and 
in  1890.  I'l.TC. 

The  depreciation  of  silver  in  the  silver  dollar  represents 
the  alleged  appreciation  of  the  gold  dollar.     The  silver  dol- 


9 

lar  has  not  depreciated  nor  the  gold  dollar  appreciated  con 
linnously  since  1ST.'!. 

Debtors  who  I  tori-owed  in  1X7(5  paid  in  1877  in  a  cheaper 
dollar  than  they  received.  Silver  appreciated  or  gold  de- 
preciated in  those  years. 

Commercial  ratio  of  silver  I '.nil  ion  value  of  silver 

to  gold.  dollar. 

1X7i 5—17.88  to  1  .894 

1S77— 17.22   to  1  .929 

Those  who  borrowed  in  1879  and  paid  in  1880  paid  back 
a  cheaper  dollar  than  they  received. 

Commercial   ratio.  Bullion  value  of  silver 

dollar. 

1879—18.40  to  1  .868 

1880—  1S.O.-)    to  1  .880 

Those  who  borrowed  in  iss:>  and  paid  in  1884  paid  back  a 
cheaper  dollar  than  they  received. 

Commercial   ratio.  Bullion  value  of  silver 

dolla  r. 

is,x:;-is.r.4  to  1  .858 

1884-18.."   to  1  .8(11 

Those  who  borrowed  in  '*<;.  'S7,  'SS  or  '89  and  paid  in  1890 
paid  in  a  cheaper  dollar  than  they  borrowed. 

Commercial    ratio.  Bullion  value  of  silver 

dollar. 

1880—20.78   to   1  .769 

1887—21.13    to  1  .758 

18S8— 21  .«.)!>    to   1  .727 

1SS9— 22.10   to   1  .724 

1890— 19.70   to   1  .810 

Those  who  borrowed  in  '87,  ?88  and  'S!»  and  paid  in  '91  paid 
in  a  cheaper  dollar. 

Commercial    ratio.  Bullion  value  of  silver 

dollar. 

1887—21.1.",    to   1  .758 

1888—21.99    to   1  .727 

1SS!»— 22.10   to    1  .724 

1  s;»  1-20.92  to  1  .764 

Those  who  borrowed  in  '94  and  paid  in  '!>">,  or  the  first  six 
months  of  '!)('».  and  those  who  borrowed  in  '!».">  and  paid  in  the 


10  ,: 

first  six  months  of  '96,  paid  in  cheaper  money  than  they  bor- 
rowed. 

Commercial   ratio.  Bullion  value  of  silver 

dollar. 

1894—32.56   to  1  .491 

1895-31.60  to   1  .505 

1896  (six  months) 

30.32  to  1  .528 

All  but  a  small  fraction  of  the  indebtedness  of  1896  was, 
according  to  the  authorities,  contracted  in  1895  and  1S94. 
In  those  years  the  creditor  loaned  to  the  debtor,  on  the  sii- 
verite  theory,  200-cent  dollars;  in  the  natural  course  "f 
events,  if  he  received  payment  in  the  first  six  months  of  !*!><; 
he  would  receive  dollars  somewhat  less  than  those  he  had 
loaned,  but  what  else  than  swindling  is  it  to  compel  him  to 
receive  for  the  200-cent  dollars  which  he  loaned  100-cent  dol 
lars,  on  the  ground  that  dollars  were  worth  only  100  cenls 
in  1873?  Half  of  the  great  bulk  of  existing  debts  would,  on 
the  silverites'  own  theory,  be  stolen  from  the  creditors  for, 
the  benefit  of  debtors  under  the  forms  of  law. 

THE    WOLF   AND    THE    LAMB. 

The  creditors  who  have  loaned  writhin  the  last  five  years, 
including  99  per  cent,  of  the  class,  when  threatened  with  a 
depreciation  of  their  dollar  by  half,  in  vain  call  attention  to 
the  fact  that  if  the  dollar  of  their  debts  has  appreciated  at 
all,  the  amount  is  infinitesimal  and  justifies  in  no  event  a 
greater  reduction  than  that  amount. 

It  seems  paradoxical  to  liken  a  debtor  to  a  wolf  and  a  cred- 
itor to  a  lamb,  but  the  situation  strongly  suggests  the  fable 
in  which  the  lamb  was  accused  by  the  wolf  first  of  disturbing 
his  drinking  water,  though  the  lamb  was  downstream,  and, 
secondly,  of  insulting  the  wolf  at  a  date  which  the  lamb 
showed  was  prior  to  his  birth ;  on  the  strength  of  which  pre- 
natal insult  the  lamb  was  torn  to  pieces  and  devoured. 

The  free-coinage  debtor  of  '96  says  to  his  recently  con- 
tracted debt:  "You  committed  against  me  the  crime  of  1873. 
By  that  crime  you  have  fattened  at  my  expense  to  twice  your 
original  size.  I  will  now  justly  proceed  to  tear  you  in  two." 

"Alas,"  vainly  pleads  the  youthful  debt;  "at  the  date  you 
speak  of  I  was  not  yet  born." 


THE  CRIME  OF  \  661. 


A  Plea  for  the  Remonetization  of  Wampum— Two 
Centuries  of  Debtors  Wronged— Real  Independence 
of  European  Financial  Domination  Proposed— 
Depreciation  of  Sea  Shells. 

[The  Washington  .Star,  Oct.  30,  1896.] 

Hear  the  new  American  free  coinage  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence! A  great  and  powerful  nation  of  70,000,000  peo- 
ple, with  all  our  wonderful  resources,  is  capable  of  having  a 
financial  policy  and  a  distinctive  money  of  its  own;  should 
not  submit  to  remain  in  financial  subjection  to  England  or 
to  all  Europe;  is  able  single-handed  to  double  the  price  of 
silver  or  anything  else  in  the  markets  of  the  world,  and  he 
who  is  so  unpatriotic  as  to  assert  the  contrary  is  a  pusillani- 
mous, crawling,  traitorous  creature,  whom  it  would  be  flat- 
tery to  characterize  as  a  nineteenth  century  Benedict  Ar- 
nold! 

The  first  point  of  the  declaration  is  that  the  gold  standard, 
which  has  been  the  American  standard  in  fact  since  1834, 
and  formally  since  1873,  is  still  European,  foreign,  alien; 
that  in  order  to  demonstrate  our  Americanism  we  must 
abandon  the  gold  standard,  which,  unlike  other  Europeans, 
has  not,  it  is  alleged,  become  naturalized  here,  even  after  a 
sixty  years'  residence,  and  in  establishing  a  new  standard 
we  must  declare  our  independence  of  the  world's  commercial 
ratio  of  silver  and  gold  and  force  upon  all  other  nations  a 
radically  differing  ratio  of  our  own  devising. 

Those  wrho  thus  scorn  European  co-operation  or  advice  in 
legislating  concerning  the  civilized  world's  medium  of  ex- 
change derive  great  comfort  from  the  opinions  and  sugges- 
tions of  Prince  Bismarck,  the  representative  of  a  gold-bug 
despotism  and  the  land  of  the  Rothschilds,  whose  views, 
curiously  enough,  these  Europe-haters  themselves  solicited. 
Bismarck,  the  man  of  gold,  as  well  as  of  blood  and  inwi, 
cynically  replies  in  effect:  "I  was  a  gold  bug  while  in  con- 
trol of  Germany,  in  fact,  demonetized  silver,  yielding  to  ex- 
pert opinion,  but  while  I  believe  in  gold  for  Germany,  I  have 
had  a  predilection  for  bimetallism,  especially  for  America, 


12 

which  is  freer  to  make  dangerous  experiments  than  Ger- 
many. I  approve  heartily  of  a  test  of  free  coinage  in  the 
United  States  if  not  incompatible  with  your  interests.  If 
you  succeed  Germany  may  imitate  you  if  she  likes,  and  if 
you  fail,  nobody  will  suffer  especially  but  yourself,  and  Ger- 
many may  use  you  as  a  warning:  and  horrible  example/'  We 
are  to  dose  ourselves  experimentally  as  apothecary's  cat  for 
Europe:  we  arc  to  pull  chestnuts  out  of  the  fire  for  the  bene- 
fit of  European  bimetallists.  and  in  the  very  performance  of 
these  humiliating  roles  we  are  called  upon  to  please  our- 
selves with  the  idea  that  we  are  proclaiming  and  demon- 
strating our  independence  of  Europe. 

The  silverites'  bogus  declaration  of  independence  appeals 
to  our  characteristic  and  dominating  national  pride,  and  at- 
tempts to  pervert  and  abuse  <the  national  sentiment.  Uncle 
Sam  is  placed  in  the  position  of  a  small  boy  who  dares  not 
take  a  dare,  no  matter  how  ridiculous  or  dangerous  the  feat 
to  which  he  is  challenged. 

One  of  the  most  effective  of  Rogers'  cartoons  in  Harper's 
Weekly  deals  with  this  appeal  to  Uncle  Sam's  false  pride. 
The  free  coinage  bull  is  pictured  as  tossing  poor  Mexico  high 
in  the  air.  Bryan,  as  a  small  boy  in  a  Lord  Fauntleroy  suit, 
is  urging  Uncle  Sam  to  jump  with  him  into  the  bull  ring 
and  tackle  the  infuriated  animal,  saying:  ''He  can't  do  that 
to  big  men  like  me  and  you,  Uncle  Sain." 

REAL   INDEPENDENCE. 

If  we  are  going  to  declare  our  independence  of  the  world's 
idea  of  the  relative  value  of  silver  and  gold  and  the  world's 
preference  concerning  its  form  of  money,  let  us  cut  loose  en- 
tirely from  the  effete  despotisms  and  old  world  notions. 
Why  use  silver  as  money?  The  world  so  scorned  by  us  has 
long  been  using  it.  It  is  identified  especially  with  Asia, 
with  barbarous  despotisms  and  the  half-civilized  races.  Shall 
we  accept  our  form  of  money  and  our  financial  ideas  from 
the  silver  bugs  of  China?  Shall  we  be  ruined  by  Chinese 
cheap  money?  Cannot  seventy  millions  of  strong,  rich  and 
brainy  Americans  do  better  than  copy  China,  India  and  Mex- 
ico? What  is  the  original  and  characteristic  American 
money,  for  which  we  are  indebted  neither  to  European  gold 
bugs,  nor  Asiatic  silver  bugs,  nor  any  effete,  old  world  finan- 
cier whatsoever?  Wampum,  of  course.  We  shall  never  rise 
to  the  full  stature  of  our  proud  independence  of  the  old  world 
and  its  financial  tyranny  until  we  have  restored  this  genuine 


American  money  to  the  lofty  legal -lender  position  which  it 
occupied  before  it  was  struck  down  by  tin-  crime  of  HW1. 

\\'aiiipuni.  the  Indian,  and.  consequently,  the  original  and 
distinctively  American  money,  was  made  of  cylindrical  per- 
forated heads  of  polished  shell.  It  was  also  used  for  many 
years  in  the  colonies,  both  in  dealing  with  the  Indians  mid 
among  the  colonists  themselves.  It  was  heartlessly  de- 
monetized in  Massachusetts  in  1WJ1.  in  KiC.L'  in  Khode  Island, 
and  soon  afterward  in  Connecticut.  New  Netherland  was 
slower  than  the  Xe\v  England  colonies  to  duplicate  the 
.Massachusetts  crime  of  IWil,  hut  in  the  course  of  a  few 
years,  after  vainly  seeking  to  lower  the  coinage  ratio  of  wam- 
pum to  kee])  pace  with  the  depreciation  of  that  currency. 
New  Xetherland  also  followed  suit  and  demonetized  wam- 
pum. 

New  Xetherland's  desperate  etTorls  from  1(!41  to  \W2  l»» 
compel,  by  legislation,  the  colonists  to  receive  the  wampum 
at  the  coinage  ratio  fixed  by  law,  and  to  preserve  this  ratio. 
though  through  overproduction  at  first,  and  demonetization 
by  other  colonies  at  last,  the  commercial  value  of  the  wam- 
pum was  constantly  depreciating,  are  full  of  interest,  espe- 
cially in  the  light  of  the  present  struggle  to  bolster  up  an- 
other falling  money. 

In  1641  the  coinage  ratio  of  wampum  was  four  beads  to 
one  stiver,  a  stiver  being  an  English  penny,  and  each  bead 
being,  therefore,  worth  about  half  a  cent.  In  that  year  an 
ordinance  of  the  director  and  council  of  New  Xetherland, 
April  18,  declared: 

"Whereas  very  bad  wampum  is  at  present  circulated  here, 
and  payment  is  made  in  nothing  but  rough,  unpolished  stuff, 
which  is  brought  here  from  places  where  it  is  .">(»  per  cent. 
cheaper  than  it  is  paid  out  here,  and  the  good,  polished  wain 
puni,  commonly  called  Manhattan  wampum,  is  wholly  put 
out  of  sight  or  exported,  which  tends  to  the  express  ruin  and 
destruction  of  this  country  (note  that  (!rcx1i<iin'x  hnr  //c/.s  in 
//.s  tb-mUji  irork  and  flic  inferior  nionci/  c.rpclx  Hie  superior); 
in  order  to  provide  in  time  therefor,  we  do  therefore  for  the 
public  good  interdict  and  forbid  all  persons,  of  what  state, 
quality  or  condition  soever  they  may  be,  to  receive  in  pay- 
ment or  to  pay  out  any  unpolished  wampum  during  the  next 
month  of  May,  except  at  five  for  one  stiver,  and  that  strung, 
and  then  after  that  six  beads  for  one  stiver.  Whosoever 
shall  be  found  to  have  acted  contrary  hereunto  shall  provi- 
sionally forfeit  the  wampum  which  is  paid  out  and  ten  guild- 
ers for  the  poor,  and  both  payer  and  payee  are  alike  liable. 


14 

The  well-polished  wampum  shall  remain  at  its  price  as  be- 
fore, to  wit,  four  for  one  stiver,  provided  it  be  strung/' 

This  ordinance  made  the  ratio  4  to  1  for  polished  wampum, 
5  and  6  to  1  for  unpolished,  and  provided  a  penalty  for  de- 
parture from  the  legal  ratios. 

In  1650,  May  30,  the  ratio  was  further  lowered  by  ordi- 
nance to  six  white  (or  three  black)  for  one  stiver,  while  in 
the  case  of  poor-strung  wampum  the  ratio  was  eight  white 
i  or  four  black)  for  one  stiver.  The  penalty  for  refusal  to 
obey  this  ordinance  was  "to  be  deprived  of  their  trade  and 
business.'' 

In  1657  (November  29)  an  ordinance  was  passed  which 
recites  the  excessive  and  intolerably  high  prices  resulting 
from  the  abundance  of  wampum  and  its  depreciation  in 
value,  and  then  proceeds  to  reduce  the  ratio  from  six  to 
eight  white  beads  for  one  stiver.  It,  however,  excepts  exist- 
ing contracts  from  its  operation,  and  to  prevent  swindling 
of  debtors  gives  them  three  months  in  which  to  pay  up  at 
the  old  ratio.  In  this  respect  it  was  more  honest  than  the 
present  free  coinage  proposition  in  its  bearing  upon  existing 
creditors. 

But  even  this  reduction  did  not  suffice,  and  in  1658  (No- 
vember 11),  in  despair  of  holding  up  wampum,  an, ordinance 
was  passed  fixing  a  maximum  legal  price  upon  the  commodi- 
ties to  be  purchased  with  the  wampum.  The  latter  was  still 
to  be  a  legal  tender  at  eight  white  beads  to  one  stiver.  It 
was  forbidden  to  sell  bread,  beer  or  wine  at  a  higher  price 
in  wampum  than  as  follows:  Half  a  gallon  of  beer,  12  sti- 
vers; can  of  French  wine,  36  stivers;  a  coarse  wheaten  loaf 
(eight  pounds  weight),  14  stivers. 

In  1662  the  16  to  1  ratio  had  been  reached,  and,  in  view  of 
the  demonetization  of  wampum  by  other  colonies,  a  further 
reduction  of  24  to  1  was  declared  by  an  ordinance  of  Decem- 
ber 28,  1662,  preliminary  to  its  demonetization  in  New  Neth- 
erland.  If,  instead  of  demonetizing  wampum,  after  the 
i-xample  of  the  other  colonies,  New  Netherland  had  by  law 
re-established  the  old  ratio  of  4  to  1  as  an  act  of  justice  to 
wampum,  and  contended  that  the  price  fixed  by  it  must  pre- 
vail in  the  other  colonies,  it  would  have  done  what  the 
United  States  is  now  asked  to  do  for  silver. 

If  now  strong  in  the  feeling  that  we  are  great  enough  and 
strong  enough  with  our  seventy  millions  of  people  and  un- 
equaled  resources  to  have  a  financial  policy  and  a  money  in- 
dependent of  all  other  nations,  we  resolve  to  discard  gold 
with  European  domination  and  silver  with  Asiatic  domina- 


16 

tion,  and  to  restore  to  its  former  proud  position  as  standard 
money  of  ultimate  redemption  our  distinctively  American 
money,  wampum,  which  was  struck  down  by  the  crime  of 
1061  and  1662,  we  can  adopt  for  wampum  the  historic  ratio 
of  16  to  1,  which  prevailed  in  New  Netherland  in  those 
years,  and  our  policy  will  be  sustained  by  all  the  16  to  1  ar- 
guments which  are  now  dinned  in  our  ears. 

It  may  be  objected  that  the  commercial  ratio  of  wampum 
is  now  much  less  than  16  beads  to  1  penny.  But  what  of 
that?  Will  not  the  price  which  the  great  and  glorious  re- 
public fixes  for  wampum  at  its  mints  raise  the  price  to  that 
figure  over  all  the  world?  Who  anywhere  will  be  so  foolish 
as  to  take  less  than  our  mint  price  for  his  wampum? 

Will  it  not  be  dishonest  to  pay  in  wampum  debts  con 
tracted  in  gold?  No.  As  compared  with  wampum,  gold 
lias  been  appreciating  in  value  for  over  two  hundred  years, 
or  ever  since  wampum  was  struck  down  by  the  crime  of 
l<»61-'62.  This  appreciation  has  defrauded  the  debtors  of  the 
world  for  centuries.  It  is  now  high  time  that  by  the  use  as 
money  of  a  commodity  which  has  been  depreciating  during 
that  period,  justice  should  be  done  to  wampum  and  retalia- 
tion practiced  by  debtors  upon  the  swindling  creditors -of  two 
centuries. 

Will  it  not  be  favoritism  toward  a  class  of  citizens,  to  wit, 
sea  coast  residents,  at  the  expense  of  all  other  Americans, 
to  make  money  of  shells?  No.  The  people  of  the  interior 
with  their  gold  and  silver  deposits  have  shackled  America 
long  enough  in  subjection  to  the  financial  policies  of  Europe 
and  Asia  and  to  their  own  enrichment. 

Can  the  United  States  thus  multiply  the  price  of  wampum 
in  the  markets  of  the  world?  Where  is  the  Benedict  Arnold 
who  will  venture  to  assert  that  this  great  and  glorious  na- 
tion cannot  make  the  world  take  sea  shells  at  the  value  fixed 
at  our  mints?  As  Mr.  Bryan  suggests :  To  such  dastards  as 
dare  to  lay  a  limit  to  the  power  of  the  American  people  I 
hurl  their  cowardice  and  lack  of  patriotism  in  their  faces. 

And  what  if  the  world  will  not  accept  our  wampum 
money?  Are  we  not  a  world  within  ourselves?  Have  we 
not  declared  our  financial  independence?  Will  not  the  re- 
sult be  to  save  us  from  the  horrors  of  currency  contraction 
through  European  drainage  of  our  supply,  to  cause  us  to 
make  and  spend  all  our  money  at  home,  and  thus  to  boom 
everything  and  to  protect  and  enrich  everybody? 


SHYLOCK  WORKMEN. 


Cutting  Off  the  Nose  in  Order  to  Spite  the  Face- 
Down  with  the  Eighth  Commandment— Proposed 
Silver  Independence  Means  a  Chinese  Isolation — 
Our  Country's  Greatness. 

[The  Washington  Star,  Oct.  31,  1896.] 

The  creditor  Shy-locks,  marked  for  financial  destruction  in 
free  coinage  retaliation  for  the  crime  of  187;J,  include  every 
one  (millions  in  the  aggregate)  who  is  paid  salary  or  waives 
only  after  service  or  labor  is  performed.  To  the  extenr  to 
which  free  coinage  depreciates  the  dollar  in  which  wages  art- 
paid,  to  that  extent  it  reduces  wages,  although  they  still  re- 
main nominally  at  the  same  figure.  Let  us  assume  that  tree 
coinage  would,  as  many  of  its  advocates  assert,  raise  ihe 
price  of  all  commodities  to  double  their  present  rate.  No 
workingmau  believes  that  his  wages  would  be  doubled  at 
once.  Me  knows  that  months  and  years  of  strikes  and  lock- 
outs would  elapse  before  wages  could  be  raised  in  due  propor- 
tion. Cutting  wages  in  half  by  their  payment  in  ."">:» cent  dol- 
lars might  increase  our  foreign  trade  by  placing  our  manufac- 
turers on  an  equal  footing  with  competitors  mainly  in  silver 
countries  who  have  the  advantage  of  employing  cheap  labor. 
American  manufacturers  would  not  dare  to  propose  directly 
to  American  workmen  this  cut.  in  wages;  but  if  the  workmen 
themselves  clamor  to  be  paid  in  depreciated  money  and  the 
same  result  of  a  reduction  in  wages  can  be  reached  through 
compliance  with  the  workingman's  own  demand,  the 
thoughtless  manufacturer  who  overlooks  the  disastrous  ef- 
fect upon  his  future  market  of  national  repudiation  and  the 
adoption  of  a  depreciated  currency  might  be  well  pleased  to 
take  the  workmen  at  their  word. 

The  necessity  of  paying  high  wages  in  this  country  in  order 
to  keep  our  people  up  to  the  mark  of  a  higher  order  of  life, 
development  and  culture  than  that  prevailing  in  Japan. 
China  and  .Mexico,  has  been  the  most  serious  drawback  in 
American  competition  with  many  foreign  manufacturers. 
Perhaps  a  temporary  seeming  business  prosperity  might  fol- 
low if  our  workingmen  would  declare  of  their  own  accord 


17 

that  they  are  overpaid,  that  our  money  is  too  good  for  them, 
and  that  they  wish  to  be  paid  in  the  kind  of  money,  with  the 
same  reduced  purchasing  power,  that  satisfies  foreign  cheap 
labor.  But  if  any  American  workingmen  are  prepared  for 
this  act  of  self-sacrifice,  why  go  at  it  in  a  roundabout  way  by 
debasing  the  national  currency — a  procedure  which  will 
swindle  thousands  of  innocent  third  persons  who  are  so  un- 
fortunate as  to  be  creditors,  and  work  general  panic  and  dis- 
aster? Why  not  move  directly  to  the  point  and  announce 
a  willingness  to  have  their  wages  reduced  one-half  without 
any  tampering  with  the  nation's  money  and  the  national 
honor? 

CUTTING    OFF    THE    NOSE   TO    SPITE   THE   FACE. 

The  individual  who  cut  off  his  nose  to  spite  his  face  is  as 
Solomon  in  wisdom  in  comparison  with  the  workman  who, 
in  response  to  the  demagogue's  appeal  to  spite  the  moneyed 
classes,  cuts  the  purchasing  power  of  his  wages  in  two  and 
leaves  himself  merely  with  the  privilege  of  fighting  for  a  pro- 
portionate increase  to  make  matters  even  again. 

As  the  farmer  is  invited  to  raise  at  his  own  expense  as  tax- 
payer the  price  of  silver,  which  he  does  not  produce,  in  the 
hope  that  in  some  way  he  will  thereby  also  raise  the  prices  of 
what  he  does  produce,  so  the  laborer  is  invited  to  legalize 
half  wages  for  himself  now  in  the  hope  that  his  employer, 
whom  Mr.  Bryan  is  teaching  him  to  hate  as  his  natural 
enemy,  will  philanthropically  double  wages  in  the  future  in 
order  to  make  him  as  prosperous  as  he  was  before. 

DEFRAUDING   THE    EEPUBLIC'S    PRESERVERS. 

Another  group  of  creditors  who  are  to  be  swindled  out  of 
one-half  of  their  dues  by  a  50-cent  dollar  are  pensioners  and 
holders  of  certain  government  bonds,  the  obligations  to 
whom  on  fhe  part  of  this  republic  are  based  upon  bloodshed, 
danger  incurred,  sufferings  endured  and  money  advanced  in 
order  to  save  the  Union.  It  is  now  proposed  that  a  grateful 
nation  shall  show  its  appreciation  of  these  services  by  dis- 
honorable repudiation  of  one-half  of  the  obligations  incurred 
in  the  struggle  to  preserve  the  nation's  life. 

We  are  invited  to  revive  in  1896  the  spirit  of  1776  and  to 
declare  our  independence  of  the  financial  tyranny  of  Eng- 
land. The  vital  facts  of  the  proposed  independence  are  sil- 
ver monometallism,  like  that  of  Mexico,  as  our  national 


18 

financial  system,  and  the  payment  of  100-cent  debts  in  50- 
cent  dollars. 

We  are  invited  to  declare  not  self-respecting  independ- 
ence, but  Chinese  or  Mexican  isolation.  We  do  not  want  to 
be  isolated.  We  wish  to  be  in  touch  with  the  rest  of  the 
world.  The  American  spirit  is  a  conquering,  absorbing, 
•dominating  spirit,  not  that  of  the  surly  hermit  who  shrinks 
from  everybody  in  the  recesses  of  his  cave.  We  can  hold 
our  own  with  all  the  world.  We  want  the  best  of  every- 
thing in  the  world.  We  want  to  profit  by  the  world's  experi- 
ence in  all  respects  and  build  to  higher  levels  of  civilization 
upon  that  experience  as  a  foundation.  We  want  the  best 
language,  English,  the  coming -language  of  the  globe.  Who 
cares  that  it  came  to  us  from  England,  and  who  proposes 
that  we  declare  a  new  independence  of  Great  Britain,  dis- 
card the  English  language  and  restore  Choctaw  as  a  dis- 
tinctively American  tongue  to  the  proud  position  which  it 
occupied  on  this  continent  prior  to  the  time  when  it  was 
struck  down  by  European  immigration.  We  want  the  best 
money  in  all  the  world  in  order  to  make  domestic  and  foreign 
exchanges,  and  we  will  not,  merely  because  England  uses  it, 
discard  gold,  the  world's  money,  and  substitute  either  the 
Asiatic  and  South  American  money,  silver,  or  our  own  North 
American  wampum. 

INDEPENDENCE    OF   THE   TEN    COMMANDMENTS. 

Our  proposed  isolation  will  be  that  of  the  outcast,  for  it 
will  flow  from  repudiation  of  part  of  our  national  debt.  We 
declare  our  independence  not  of  the  decrees  of  Lombard  and 
Wall  streets,  but  of  the  Ten  Commandments.  Our  defiance 
is  leveled  not  at  British  financial  tyranny  and  the  Roths- 
childs, but  at  the  God  of  nations,  who  declares  to  govern- 
ments as  to  individuals,  "Thou  shalt  not  steal." 

The  free-coinage  pronunciamento  is  not  a  declaration  of 
independence,  but  with  its  associated  issues  in  this  cam- 
paign is  rather  a  proclamation  of  civil  strife.  The  Chicago 
and  St.  Louis  coalitionists  run  up  the  banner  of  repudiation, 
sectionalism  and  internal  dissension.  Their  campaign  ar- 
rays class  against  class,  section  against  section,  and  appeals 
to  the  basest  passions  of  the  individual. 

The  American  republic,  toward  which  depressed  but  aspir- 
ing humanity  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe  has  turned  for  in- 
spinu'nm,  is  in  this  struggle  subjected  to  a  test  of  its  right 
to  live.  Has  the  national  conscience  become  corrupted? 


19 

Are  the  people,  rent  by  passion  and  faction,  class  hatreds, 
sectional  rancor  and  individual  envy,  greed  and  malice,  to 
confess  themselves  unfit  to  govern  themselves? 

The  lessons  which  America  has  taught  mankind  are  the 
capacity  of  the  people  for  self-government,  the  dignity  of 
labor  and  the  true  greatness  of  nations,  not  merely  in  "pro- 
claiming peace  and  good  will  within  its  boundaries  and  to 
all  men  everywhere,  but  in  diffusing  the  blessings  of  justice, 
of  Christian  beneficence  and  of  the  good  faith  which  de- 
velops naturally  and  inevitably  from  a  sensitive  national 
conscience  over  its  own  people  and  the  whole  world. 

The  spectacle  of  the  masses  of  a  vast  population,  the  mas- 
ters of  a  new  world,  governing  themselves  with  sound  judg- 
ment, toiling  industriously  and  with  success  for  their  own 
material,  intellectual  and  moral  advancement,  toward  whose 
progress  the  law,  the  government  and  all  the  national  insti- 
tutions are  tributary,  has  given  life  and  strength  to  the  spirit 
of  liberty  everywhere.  The  growth  of  the  power  of  the  peo- 
ple in  this  favored  land  and  their  advance  in  numbers  and  in 
physical  conditions,  in  intelligent  skill,  in  self-reliant  readi- 
ness to  grapple  with  emergencies,  in  fertility  of  resource,  in 
broadening  enterprise  and  in  loftiness  of  ideals,  have  not 
only  blessed  America,  but  all  of  marveling  mankind. 

The  old  world  knew  well  only  government  by  the  few; 
America  taught  the  possibility  and  the  blessing  of  wise  and 
righteous  government  by  the  many. 

The  old  world  had  degraded  labor,  till  the  workman  was 
as  the  cattle  of  the  field;  America  has  magnified  and  glori- 
fied labor,  as  a  Divine  command,  through  obedience  to  which 
a  whole  nation  of  toilers  have  reaped  the  reward  of  un- 
equaled  power  and  prosperity  for  themselves,  and  have  pro- 
claimed human  brotherhood  and  hopeful,  helpful,  Christian 
sympathy  to  the  oppressed  of  all  the  world. 
'  Shall  we  abdicate  this  noble  leadership  of  nations?  Shall 
we  taint  the  stream  of  our  world  influence  and  change  it 
from  a  blessing  to  a  curse?  Shall  we  destroy  our  lesson  of 
the  dignity  and  worth  of  labor  and  of  the  capacity  of  the 
common  people  for  self-government  by  so  using  the  forms  of 
that  government  as  in  the  name  of  that  labor  to  strike  down 
the  national  honor  and  to  brand  the  republic  ns  a  swindler, 
filching  from  his  coin  of  payment  and  shirking  honest  debts? 

The  sweating  of  coin  and  the  sweating  of  labor  by  employ- 
ers are  alike  infamous.  It  is  proposed  that  Uncle  Sam  shall 
criminally  apply  the  sweating  system  to  the  coin  and  the 
wages  of  the  land  and  rob  each  of  half  its  substance. 


20 

The  very  greatness  in  population  and  resources  which  is 
cited  as  a  demonstration  of  our  ability  to  declare  our  inde- 
pendence of  the  Ten  Commandments  furnishes  a  sufficient 
reason  for  adhering  to  the  principles  which  have  made  us 
great,  and  for  moving  steadily  forward  in  the  path  which 
we  have  trodden. 

To  preserve  liberty  and  union  as  one  and  inseparable,  and 
to  increase  our  domestic  blessings  and  our  wholesome  in- 
fluence upon  the  world  as  the  leader  among  nations  in  thw- 
arts of  peace  and  civilized  progress,  it  will  be  necessary  for 
the  great  middle  class,  Lincoln's  common  people,  the  real 
rulers  of  America,  to  guard  vigilantly  against  the  encroach- 
ments of  aggregated  wealth  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  threat- 
ening demonstrations  of  the  lawless  mob  on  the  other;  to 
steer  the  ship  of  state  between  the  rocks  of  plutocracy  and 
the  whirlpool  of  repudiation  and  anarchy.  But  let  no  one 
in  the  name  of  the  people  preach  the  doctrine  of  sectional- 
ism and  class  prejudice,  pointing  to  disunion,  and  the  de- 
struction of  the  government  by  and  for  the  people.  Let  no 
one  in  the  name  of  labor  degrade  labor  from  its  high  estate. 
Let  no  one  in  the  name  of  national  pride  stain  the  national 
credit  and  make  the  republic,  once  so  honored,  a  hissing  and 
a  by-word  among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

We  are  told  by  the  free-coinage  advocates  that  this  nation 
is  great  enough,  single-handed,  to  double  the  price  of  silver 
over  all  the  globe;  great  enough  to  make  fifty  cents  one  hun- 
dred cents  by  act  of  Congress;  great  enough  to  bear,  Atlas- 
like,  a  world's  weight  of  silver  on  its  shoulders;  great 
enough,  by  its  own  voluntary  act,  to  double  with  impunity 
the  pressure  of  this  crushing  load. 

But  the  nation  is  not  great  enough — in  folly — to  attempt 
unnecessarily  and  with  no  promise  of  reward  this  impossible 
task,  and  is  not  great  enough — in  knavery — to  brazen  out 
the  swindle  which  will  result  from  its  inevitable  failure  to 
raise  the  burden  of  the  silver  of  the  world  to  twice  its  pres- 
ent level. 

The  nation  is  too  great  to  be  ungrateful  to  the  pensioners 
and  bondholders  who  risked  life  and  treasure  in  the  repub- 
lic's defense  in  its  mortal  struggle;  too  great  to  stifle  the 
warning  whispers  of  the  national  conscience  against  dishon- 
orable repudiation  of  just  obligations;  too  great  to  place 
upon  America  and  Americans  the  stigma  of  fraudulent 
bankruptcy;  too  great  for  isolation  and  disgraceful  exile 
from  the  family  of  civilized  nations;  in  short,  too  great  to  be 
dishonest,  too  great  to  be  nailed  to  a  silver  cross  after  the 
fashion  and  as  a  legitimate  successor  of  the  impenitent  thief. 


WASHINGTONIANA. 


Speech    at    Board    of   Trade    Reception,    February 
2Oth,  1894. 

It  is  seldom  that  the  people  of  Washington  enjoy  the  privi- 
lege of  meeting  their  Congressional  partners  in  the  work  of 
capital  making,  and  the  occasions  are  still  rarer  when  the 
Washingtonians,  the  silent  partners  of  the  firm,  have  the 
opportunity  of  speaking  their  minds.  The  phrase-makers 
have  coined  an  expressive  designation,  "the  unspeakable 
Turk."  But  the  Washingtonian  is  better  entitled  to  this  ad- 
jective. For  in  his  public  affairs  it  must  be  admitted  that 
the  unspeakable  Washingtonian  is  even  less  speakable  than 
the  unspeakable  Turk. 

The  meetings  of  silent  and  active  partners  are  often  scenes 
of  recrimination,  and  it  is  easy  to  imagine  the  partners  as- 
sembled to-night  as  indulging  in  this  reprehensible  practice. 

Washington,  the  silent  partner,  might  be  conceived  as  say- 
ing to  Congress:  "I  contributed  to  you  as  the  active  part- 
ner in  the  capital-making  firm  five-sevenths  of  the  site  of  the 
city  and  my  rights  and  privileges  of  American  citizenship.  I 
supplied  the  fund  from  which  the  firm's  original  public 
buildings  were  erected.  The  pledges  which  you  made  at 
that  time  on  the  strength  of  these  contributions  have  been 
repeatedly  violated.  For  three-fourths  of  a  century  you  tried 
to  freeze  me  out  of  participation  in  the  benefits  of  the  part- 
nership. You  have  pocketed  my  contributed  capital,  neg- 
lected the  business  of  the  firm,  and  forced  it  on  at  least  one 
occasion  into  bankruptcy.  Even  now,  when  a  quickening  of 
conscience  and  an  accession  of  national  and  patriotic  pride 
have  made  you  comparatively  faithful  to  your  trust,  you  are 
repeatedly  levying  upon  me  unjust  assessments  in  violation 
of  the  spirit  of  our  agreement,  and  having  long  cruelly 
wronged  me,  you  now  treat  my  requests  and  complaints 
with  contempt." 

And  Congress  might  be  imagined  as  replying:  "You  are 
the  noisiest  silent  partner  that  the  mind  of  man  can  con- 


22 

ceive.  You  are  a  chronic  grumbler  and  kicker,  growling  at 
everything  I  do  or  leave  undone  in  conducting  the  firm's 
business.  I  cannot  be  bothered  with  your  petty  affairs 
when  important  national  concerns  demand  my  attention. 
Your  people  wrangle  among  themselves  and  make  contradic- 
tory suggestions.  If  you  don't  know  what  you  want  your- 
self, how  am  I  to  heed  your  requests  and  your  advice?" 

But  no  such  recrimination  as  that  suggested  is  in  the 
slightest  degree  threatened  to-night.  The  members  of  the 
Board  of  Trade  are  not  the  sort  of  individuals  to  invite  un- 
suspecting Congressmen  to  break  the  bread  and  taste  the 
salt  of  their  hospitality,  and  then  take  advantage  of  the  oc- 
casion to  pound  them  for  the  shortcomings  of  other  Con- 
gresses and  other  Congressmen.  Neither  the  citizens  nor 
the  legislators  who  deserve  to  be  scolded  are  here  to  receive 
their  punishment.  The  faithful  and  able  friends  who  have 
shown  their  interest  in  the  Capital  and  its  welfare  by  as- 
sembling in  this  hall  to-night  are  not  the  men  wrho  need  to 
be  lectured  on  constitutional  duty,  patriotic  pride  or  public 
spirit.  On  neither  side  of  the  partnership  shall  we  fall  into 
the  clergyman's  error  of  scolding  the  congregation  present 
for  the  absence  of  those  not  on  hand  to  receive  merited  re- 
proof. 

Many  a  time  in  noting  how  one  section  of  the  city  has 
stood  coldly  aloof  or  has  actively  obstructed  when  another 
section  was  striving  for  some  public  improvement  or  the  re- 
moval of  some  public  evil  from  its  confines,  I  have  been  re- 
minded of  Aesop's  fable  of  the  father  and  the  quarreling 
sons,  who  were  unable  to  break  the  fagots  when  collected  in 
a  bundle,  but  easily  broke  them  one  by  one  when  the  bundle 
was  unclosed  and  the  sticks  were  handled  separately.  And 
I  can  imagine  Forefather  Washington,  like  the  father  in  the 
table,  saying  in  spirit  to  his  sons,  the  men  of  his  namesake 
city:  "My  sons,  if  you  are  of  one  mind  and  unite  to  assist 
one  another,  you  will  be  as  this  bundle,  uninjured  by  all  the 
attempts  of  your  enemies;  and  if  you  are  divided  among 
yourselves  you  will  be  broken  as  easily  as  these  sticks." 

When  we  of  Washington  have  removed  the  obstacle  to  the 
city's  highest  development  which  our  own  lack  of  hearty  and 
organized  co-operniion  supplies,  there  is  strong  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  Congressional  inertia  and  indifference  may  be  over- 
come, that  th<>  District's  legislature  will  perform  faithfully 
its  constitutional  function  and  that  our  brightest  dreams  of 
the  future  of  Washington  will  be  fully  realized. 

Let  the  Board  of  Trade  collect  the  scattered  sticks  of 


23 

Washington's  resources  for  aggression  and  resistance,  and 
the  resulting  combination  will  be  unbreakable  and  irresisti- 
ble. 

In  spite  of  the  drawbacks  suggested,  the  capital  making 
partnership  has  of  late  years  labored  satisfactorily  upon  its 
task.  An  ugly,  straggling  village  has  been  converted  into  a 
beautiful  city.  But  the  great  results  in  certain  respects 
which  have  been  accomplished  serve  to  render  conspicuous 
by  contrast  the  lack  of  a  corresponding  development  in  other 
i  lungs,  like  a  few  pieces  of  furniture  of  inharmonious  rich- 
ness in  the  municipal  house.  The  city  must  live  up  to  the 
in-west  and  best  of  its  furniture.  It  must  be  supplied  with 
all  the  fittings  and  belongings  of  a  great  modern  capital. 

The  city's  rapid  growth  has  been  recent;  the  new  Wash- 
ington is  still  in  its  infancy;  and  this  fact  significantly  sug- 
gests to  the  ambitious  and  public-spirited  that  the  opportuni- 
ties are  not  by  any  means  exhausted  of  conspicuous  identifi- 
cation with  the  upbuilding  of  the  Capital.  In  many  cities 
the  grooves  have  long  ago  been  formed  in  which  municipal 
affairs  and  achievements  must  run.  The  founders  and  crea- 
tors of  the  greatness  of  these  cities  are  historic  names  and 
the  list  is  closed.  In  the  case  of  Washington,  the  city  in  which 
tin'  whole  republic  takes  pride  is  building  upon  a  city  in 
which  for  three-fourths  of  a  century  no  one  took  pride.  It 
is  now  building  and  its  founders  and  builders  are  of  the  liv- 
ing present.  A  vast  deal  remains  to  be  accomplished.  There 
is  room  for  every  notable  contributor  to  the  welfare  of  the 
expanding  capital  to  erect  for  himself  a  conspicuous  and  en- 
during monument  as  a  creator  of  the  new  Washington. 
Ther«  is  room  for  a  L'Enfant  and  a  Washington  in  planning 
and  perfecting  a  second  city,  larger  in  area  than  the  first, 
which  is  springing  up  outside  the  present  urban  boundaries. 
Who  will  give  it  a  model  street  system  without  oppressing 
and  impoverishing  the  city;  a  model  sewer  system:  a  model 
rapid  transit  system? 

Xot  only  is  there  this  recent  city  to  offer  a  field  of  munici- 
pal achievement,  but  the  old  city  has  tasted  the  elixir  of  lifr 
and  is  itself  a  new  Washington.  Who  will  successfully 
champion  its  requests  for  current  maintenance  and  develop- 
in. 'in  before  the  appropriations  committees?  Who  will  bless 
it  with  a  code  of  modern  laws?  Who  will  give  it  a  safe,  sat- 
isfactory and  reasonably  attractive  system  of  railroad  termi- 
nals? Who  will  secure  for  it  a  creditable  municipal  build- 
ing? Who  will  revolutionize  its  whole  bridge  system  and 
.  especially,  the  national  disgrace  of  the  pr.-s.-nt  Long 


24 

Brill-it-?  Who  will  mend  its  ways,  especially  its  footways, 
its  dilapidated  and  discreditable  sidewalks?  Who  will  cure 
the  hundred  ills  which  afflict  and  hamper  the  growing  city? 
Who  will  identify  himself  with  the  making  of  the  world's 
modern  capital  that  is  to  be  and  build  to  himself  still  living 
an  historic  monument? 

In  the  name  of  the  people  of  the  National  Capital,  I  invite 
all  present  to-night,  guests  and  hosts,  young  and  old  alike, 
to  enroll  their  names  and  act  vigorously  their  parts  among 
the  patriarchs  of  the  infant  and  prospective  city  in  the  re- 
nowned and  patriotic  order  of  founders  of  the  new  and 
greater  Washington. 


Speech  as  President  of  the  Washington  Board  of 
Trade,  at  the  Board's  Annual  Reception  at  the 
Arlington,  February  24th,  1898. 

Once  a  year,  at  the  invitation  of  their  Washington  con- 
stituents of  the  Board  of  Trade,  the  constitutionally  ap- 
pointed municipal  legislators  of  the  District  of  Columbia 
hold  an  evening  session  at  the  Arlington,  instead  of  at  the 
Capitol,  in  which  these  local  constituents  are  permitted  to 
participate. 

On  these  occasions  newcomers  among  our  distinguished 
aldermen  and  common  councilmen  have  an  opportunity  to 
catch  something  of  the  drift  of  public  sentiment  among  the 
quarter  million  of  people  whose  legislative  needs  are  en- 
trusted exclusively  to  their  tender  mercies,  and  they  are  also 
enabled  to  inspect  samples  of  their  Capital  constituents  and 
to  ascertain  whether  the  Washingtonian  really  has  horns, 
hoofs  and  a  forked  tail,  as  some  allege.  On  their  part  the 
Washing!  onians,  having  for  this  occasion  only  the  privileges 
of  the  floor,  may  corner  the  evasive  Congressmen,  hem  them 
in  with  chairs,  and  compel  attention  to  a  year's  accumula- 
tion of  suppressed  utterances — just  as  I  am  doing  at  the 
ju-i—cnt  moment. 

In  welcoming  our  guests  to  this  joint  session  the  tempta- 
tion to  a  loyal  Washingtonian  is  almost  irresistible  to  dilate 
copiously  upon  the  beauties  of  the  developing  Capital,  like  a 
doting  mother  with  her  only  child  as  a  text.  And  there  is 
something  inspiring  in  the  reflection  that  we  residents  of  or 
legislators  for  the  nation's  city  are  finishing  the  work  which 
the  fathers  began,  and  are  building  up  to-day  a  new,  en 


larged  and  constantly  expanding  Washington  on  more  ex 
tensive  lines  and  with  a  finer  inunii -ipal  equipment  than  the 
most  optimistic    forefather    ever    pictured   in    his  rosiest 
dreams. 

But  Washington  does  more  than  appeal  to  the  national 
pride;  it  is  a  distinct  factor  in  developing  and  strengthening 
patriotic  sentiment. 

Like  anti-Tammany  in  a  recent  election,  the  nation  needs 
very  much  a  unifying  force.  American  national  sentiment 
hidden  under  modern  cynicism,  unsentimental  and  selfish 
business  interests  and  sectional  prejudices  is  wrapped  in  as 
many  coverings  as  the  Egyptian  mummy,  and  frequently 
has  no  more  apparent  life  than  the  remains  of  the  great 
Rameses;  but  the  electric  shock  not  only  of  threatened  na- 
tional danger,  but  merely  of  the  unexpected  sight  of  the  flag 
or  sound  of  some  national  air  in  foreign  lands  will  pierce  and 
consume  the  obstructive  coverings  and  revivify  in  an  instant 
the  latent  patriotism. 

A  stroke  of  lightning  should  not,  however,  be  required  to 
give  active  life  to  the  spirit  of  American  nationality.  Espe- 
cially should  not  miserable  sectional  prejudices,  jealousies 
and  misunderstandings  be  fostered  at  the  expense  of  a  broad 
Americanism,  and  be  permitted  to  weaken  and  destroy  the 
patriotic  national  sentiment. 

I  lived  for  four  years  in  South  Dakota  just  before  that 
hustling  community  became  a  State.  As  a  full-fledged,  en- 
thusiastic Dakotan,  I  vigorously  resented  many  a  time 
Eastern  misconceptions  of  that  community's  spirit  and  tend- 
ency; Eastern  sneers  at  a  people  of  unbounded  energy  and 
intelligent  progressiveness.  in  whose  miniature  cities  the 
school  house  was  ever  the  conspicuous  public  building; 
Eastern  denunciations  of  them  .as  unfit  for  statehood,  and 
as  suitable  material  only  for  a  rotten  borough  in  the  Ameri- 
can system.  Then  there  were  not  merely  conscious  and 
avowed  caricatures,  but  serious  references,  based  on  honest 
ignorance,  which  represented  I  his  people  as  being  fittingly 
typified  by  the  whooping  cowboy,  full  of  bad  whisky  and 
puncturing  the  atmosphere  with  bullets,  or  by  the  jay  farmer 
with  abnormal  goatee  and  a  potato  side  to  his  head.  Worse 
still  were  the  malicious  libels  imputing  universal  knavery 
to  the  community,  picturing  the  citizens  as  chased  from  the 
East  by  criminal  records,  as  robbing  the  Government  by 
vast  and  systematic  land  frauds,  as  combining  in  a  body  to 
swindle  innocent  Easterners  by  salted  mines,  bogus  town 
sites  and  worthless  mortgage  securities.  But  I  soon  found 


20 

thai  there  \va>  reciprocity  in  sectional  misconceptions,  and 
that  many  Westerners  evened  up  matters  by  classifying; 
Easterners  who  remained  in  the  East  either  as  brainless 
dudes,  boasting  inherited  money  and  nothing  else,  or  as 
sharpers  using  unscrupulous  brains  in  the  pursuit  of  money, 
from  (lie  Shylocks  of  Wall  street  to  the  gold-brick  bunco 
man.  I  also  discovered  that  as  an  ex-Washingtouian  I  was 
compelled  to  resent  Western  misconceptions  of  the  people  of 
the  Capital  as  frequently  as  Eastern  misconceptions  of  the 
community  of  which  I  was  an  adopted  member. 

And  I  call  upon  every  Western  man  within  sound  of  my 
voice  to  remember  that  the  representation  of  Washington- 
ians  as  untaxed  mendicants,  dependent  upon  the  national 
bounty,  is  denounced  by  them  as  a  lying  and  insulting  cari- 
cature, as  atrocious  as  any  emanating  from  the  ignorant 
East  under  whose  injustice  the  Westerner  himself  may  have 
smarted.  As  I  frequently  pointed  out  to  my  fellow  South 
Dakotans,  the  District  of  Columbia  has  not  been  a  notable 
nat  ioual  beneficiary  even  as  compared  writh  the  new  Western 
States  like  South  Dakota  itself. 

The  owners  of  the  soil  of  Washington  were  here  before 
the  Government  came,  before  the  nation  and  Government 
were  even  created.  They  gave  up  their  own  property  to 
the  Government  that,  the  nation  might  practically  own  and 
exclusively  control  a  national  city.  They  donated  to  the 
nation  five-sevenths  of  the  area  of  Washington. 

The  greater  part  of  the  soil  of  most  of  the  Western  States 
was,  on  the  other  hand,  at  first  the  territory  of  the  nation, 
acquired  by  purchase,  conquest  or  treaty,  including  treaties 
witli  the  Indians,  and  passed  by  gift  to  individual  settlers 
under  the  homestead  and  timber  culture  laws,  and  by  nom- 
inal sale,  but  actual  gift  under  the  pre-emption  laws.  The 
nation  wisely  donated  land  to  the  people  who  would  live 
upon  it  and  cultivate  it.  Later,  when  these  communities  of 
settlers  became  States,  the  nation  gave  back  to  them  the 
proceeds  of  I  he  sales  under  the  pre-emption  law  in  the  shape 
of  grants  of  money  for  educational  purposes,  and  added 
thereto  vast  land  grants  direct,  including  over  one  hundred 
millions  of  acres  for  schools  and  colleges. 

Thus,  in  the  case  of  Washington,  private  individuals  were 
the  donors  and  the  nation  was  the  beneficiary;  in  the  case 
of  my  adopted  State  and  others,  for  instance,  in  the  Louisi- 
ana purchase,  the  nation  was  the  donor  and  the  individuals 
and  communities  the  beneficiaries. 


But  this,  some  one  may  say,  is  ancient  history.  L.-i  it  be 
conceded  that  Washingtonians  many  years  ago  aided  a 
poverty-stricken  national  government,  put  up  with  its  broken 
pledges,  and  performed  almost  unassisted,  for  three-quarters 
of  a  century,  the  work  of  capital-making,  nominally  a> 
sumed  by  the  nation, — Are  you  not  untaxed  beggars  now  ? 

The  nation  which  at  first  owned  five-sevenths  of  Wash 
ington,  still  owns  one-half,  and  its  percentage  now  inrre;i-,  - 
every  year.  It  still  holds  and  exercises  exclusive  control 
over  that  city.  The  taxes  which  Washington  pays  an-  de- 
termined by  Congress  alone.  If  they  are  too  light  the 
reproach  attaches  not  to  Washington  but  to  Congress;  but 
they  are  not  too  light. 

Tlit-  census  records  of  1890  show  that  the  per  capita  mu- 
nicipal tax  levy  of  Washington  is  greater  than  that  of  the 
vast  majority  of  American  municipalities  exceeding  4,000  in 
population.  It  exceeds  that  of  Omaha,  Allegheny  City  and 
Indianapolis,  and  is  only  slightly  exceeded  by  that  of  Cleve- 
land, Newark  and  Milwaukee,  all  cities  approximating  it  in 
si/c.  The  per  capita  indebtedness  of  Washington  far  .  \ 
ceeds  that  of  any  of  the  enumerated  cities.  It  is  nearly 
twice  as  great  as  the  next  largest,  and  seven  times  the  small- 
est. Not  one  of  these  cities  has  so  large  a  floating  non-tax- 
paying  population  as  Washington,  with  its  one-third  negro 
population  and  its  thousands  of  temporary  residents  ami 
Government  employes.  This  non-taxpaying  element  re- 
duces the  nominal  per  capita  tax  levy  without  reducing  it  in 
fact  by  money  subscriptions.  Not  one  of  the  enumerated 
i-ities  has  so  few  money-making  resources  in  commerce, 
trade  and  manufactures  in  proportion  to  population  with 
which  to  meet  this  drain  of  taxation. 

A  like  showing  is  made  in  national  taxation.  The  only 
present  national  taxes  which  fall  directly,  and  unmistakably 
and  in  ascertainable  amounts  upon  Americans,  are  the  in- 
ternal revenue  taxes.  In  1895  the  District,  in  spite  of  the 
comparative  smallness  of  its  area  and  population,  contrib- 
uted to  this  fund  more  than  any  one  of  sixteen  States  and 
live  territories. 

It  contributed  more  than  the  combined  contributions  of 
Maine,  Vermont,  Mississippi,  North  Dakota,  South  Dakota. 
Idaho  and  Wyoming.  It  has  no  representation  in  the  na- 
tional legislature  which  is  paid  from,  and  which  disburses 
this  fund,  while  the  States  whose  combined  contributions 
are  exceeded  by  its  own  alone  have  14  votes  in  the  Senate 
and  IS  in  the  House. 


28 

The  Washingtonian's  per  capita  contribution  to  that  fund 
exceeded  in  1895  that  of  the  citizens  of  twenty-two  States 
and  five  territories. 

For  instance,  we  paid  into  the  fund  from  which  are  drawn 
the  salaries  of  the  South  Dakota  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives nearly  six  times  as  much  as  the  South  Dakotan;  toward 
the  salary  of  the  Kansas  Congressman  five  times  as  much 
as  the  Kansan;  for  the  Texas  Congressman  five  times  as 
much  as  the  Texan;  for  the  Vermont  Congressman  over 
ten  times  as  much  as  the  Vermonter;  for  the  Congressman 
from  South  Carolina  or  Arkansas,  twelve  times  as  much  as 
the  Arkansan  or  South  Carolinian;  and  for  the  Mississippi 
Congressman  one  hundred  and  twenty  times  as  much  as  the 
Mississippian. 

This  mistaken  idea  concerning  the  people  of  the  capital, 
indeed,  sectional  misconceptions  and  prejudices  of  all  sorts, 
great  or  small,  whether  entertained  in  North,  South,  East 
or  West,  should  be  gradually  modified  and  finally  eliminated 
to  the  end  that  a  broad,  loyal,  genuine  Americanism  may 
pervade  the  whole  land. 

We  are  to  recognize  that  our  country  in  its  physical  as- 
pects with  seacoasts  and  ports,  its  manufacturing,  agricult- 
ural and  mining  sections,  all  interdependent  and  necessary 
to  one  another's  prosperous  existence,  is  the  pre-ordained 
home  of  a  single  people;  that  this  is  the  American  people, 
"one  from  many,"  wonderfully  homogeneous  in  spite  of  di- 
versity of  origin,  one  in  ideas,  associations,  sympathies  and 
national  objects. 

We  Americans  of  1898  are  to  say  with  the  fullness  of 
conviction  and  the  quadrupled  emphasis  of  a  hundred  years 
of  experience  what  Christopher  Gadsden  of  South  Carolina 
said  almost  prophetically  in  1765,  at  the  Colonial  Congress 
in  New  York:  "There  ought  to  be  no  New  Englandman,  no 
New  Yorker  known  on  the  Continent,  but  all  Americans." 

In  accomplishing  this  result  there  is  a  distinct  field  of 
usefulness  for  the  capital  with  its  unifying,  nationalizing, 
patriotic  influence. 

Washington  was  brought  into  being  as  peculiarly  and  ex- 
clusively the  home  and  abiding  place  of  the  Nation  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  State.  It  is  the  crystallization  of  the 
national  idea,  the  substantial  embodiment  of  the  abstract 
Union.  Here,  literally,  there  is  no  New  Englandman,  no 
New  Yorker,  but  all  Americans. 

The  city  of  the  whole  nation  has  planted  deeply  in  every 
portion  of  the  republic  the  roots  of  its  existence.  It  is  an 


29 

object  of  pride  and  affection  to  all  Americans.  Here  all 
come  together  on  equal  terms,  upon  land  in  which  they  have 
a  common  interest,  governed  exclusively  by  the  Union  of 
which  they  are  a  part.  The  West  learns  the  East,  the  North 
the  South,  and  vice  versa.  All  sections  are  bound  more 
closely  together.  Prejudices  are  softened  and  gradually 
removed.  National  sentiment  dominates,  the  American 
spirit  is  developed,  and  patriotism  is  strengthened. 

George  Washington  foresaw  this  unifying,  nationalizing 
function  of  the  capital,  and  for  that  reason  proposed  to 
locate  in  it  the  national  university,  which  he  projected. 
Here,  he  said,  the  susceptible  youth  of  the  land,  in  the  at- 
mosphere of  the  nation's  city,  and  reviewing  the  workings 
of  the  General  Government,  would  be  impressed  with  a 
love  of  our  national  institutions,  counteracting  both  foreign 
influences  and  sectional  sentiments.  The  university  of 
which  he  dreamed  was  never  born,  but,  carrying  out  his 
idea  on  a  grander  scale,  the  capital  has  itself  become  a 
national  university,  in  which  a  whole  people  are  students, 
for  the  promotion  of  liberal,  enlarged  and  patriotic  Ameri- 
canism, teaching  enthusiastic  love  of  country,  and  making 
of  all  of  us  better  citizens. 


Speech  as  President  of  the  Washington  Board  of 
Trade  at  the  Board's  Annual  Shad-bake  at  Mar- 
shall Hall,  May  21st,  1898. 

In  greeting  our  guests  of  to-day  in  the  name  of  the  Board 
of  Trade  a  few  words  touching  the  nature  of  this  gathering 
may  be  appropriate. 

Our  annual  shad-bake  is  a  Potomac  Valley  substitute  for 
the  barbecue  in  the  opportunity  which  it  offers  to  legisla- 
tors to  mingle  out-of-doors  in  a  democratic  go-as-you-please 
fashion,  with  their  constituents.  Since  the  Constitution — 
and  not  our  own  votes — selects  for  us  our  exclusive  legis- 
lators, who  are  to-day  among  our  guests,  we  are  not  per- 
haps entitled  to  any  ante-election  explanations  or  assurances, 
and  the  political  fence-mending  customary  at  the  barbecue 
or  camp-meeting,  is  here  perhaps  superfluous. 

It  is  well,  however,  for  Washingtonians  and  their  Con- 
gressional aldermen  and  common  councilmen  to  come  to- 
gether frequently  in  open,  manly  fashion  for  the  inter- 


30 

change  of  opinion  and  information.  Unless  in  some  mysteri- 
ous way  it  is  conducive  to  wise  law-making  that  legislators 
should  be  total  strangers  to  the  constituents  whose  legisla- 
livc  needs  are  to  be  learned  and  supplied,  this  partial  in- 
troduction of  aldermen  and  common  councilmen  to  local 
taxpayers  is  most  advisable,  both  for  the  welfare  of  the 
Federal  District,  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  conscientious 
legislator,  entrusted  by  the  Constitution  with  the  duty  of 
assisting  to  shape  the  destinies  of  the  National  Capital  and 
a  resident  community  of  nearly  300,000  people. 

This  duty  cannot  be  well  and  faithfully  performed  by  a 
hermit  who  keeps  himself  persistently  ignorant  concerning 
local  conditions,  and  who  shrinks  from  contact  with  the 
people  for  whom  he  is  to  legislate. 

A  wholesome  tendency  of  these  shad-bakes  is  to  bring 
about  a  closer  acquaintance  between  the  national  legisla- 
tors and  their  local  constituents  under  the  Constitution,  and 
a  better  Congressional  understanding  of  genuine  local  needs, 
and  in  spite  of  certain  picnic  crudenesses  in  entertainment, 
and  unavoidable  individual  discomforts  from  annoying  sun 
or  pelting  rain  or  an  over-enthusiastic  reception  by  resident 
red  ants,  our  hope  has  been  that  occasions  like  the  present, 
so  characteristic  of  this  section  of  the  world,  would  prove 
interesting  and  enjoyable. 

Our  trip  down  the  Potomac  and  the  spectacle  after  ar- 
rival here  of  the  planking  and  absorption  of  innumerable 
shad  turn  our  thoughts  naturally  to  the  river  and  its  in- 
habitants; and  serve  to  remind  the  local  historians  that 
the  first  white  man  who  ever  sailed  over  the  river's  surface 
commented  with  astonishment  upon  the  abundance  of  fish 
in  the  Potomac,  whose  appropriate  Indian  name  signifies: 
''Where  fishes  spawn  in  shoals." 

This  man,  Captain  John  Smith,  of  that  famous  and  ubi- 
quitous family,  well  known  everywhere  even  in  those  early 
days,  who  sailed  up  the  river  in  1607,  many  years  before 
the  Puritan  forefathers  landed  at  Plymouth  Rock,  has  proved 
himself  as  a  teller  of  fish  stories  the  worthy  forerunner  of 
the  most  gifted  imaginations  of  our  local  fishing  clubs.  What 
member  of  any  of  these  organizations  can  fail  to  take  a 
professional  interest  and  pride  in  Smith's  description  of  the 
solid  mass  of  Potomac  fish,  "laying,"  he  said,  "so  thick,  with 
heads  above  the  water,"  that  for  want  of  nets  he  attempted 
to  catch  them  with  a  frying  pan. 

Moreover,  the  first  white  man  who  ever  lived  on  the  banks 


31 

of  the  Potomac.  Henry  Fleet,  who  was  captured  by  Xacoa- 
taii  Indians  jn  Hii'l,  and  dwelt  a  captive  for  several  years 
on  or  near  the  present  site  of  Washington,  hears  cumulative 
testimony  to  the  a  ma /ing  numbers  of  Potomac  fish.  Fleet 
also  discovered  that  the  Xacostan  Indians  not  only  planked 
i  heir  shad,  but  also  their  human  captives,  fastening  them 
in  a  stake  or  tree,  and  roasting  them  by  means  of  surround- 
ing tires.  Indeed,  Fleet  narrowly  escaped  being  thus 
••planked''  himself. 

From  these  beginnings  all  through  our  records  the  Poto- 
mac is  rich  in  historic  associations.  With  the  home  of  George 
Washington  on  the  Virginia  bank  opposite  to  where  I  now 
stand,  and  with  George  Washington's  and  the  nation's  city 
not  many  miles  from  here  on  the  Maryland  shore,  the  Poto- 
mac cut  a  notable  figure  in  revolutionary  and  early  repub- 
lican annals.  A  meeting  at  Alexandria  and  informally  at 
Mr.  Yernon  of  Maryland  and  Virginia  commissioners  to  dis- 
cuss interstate  arrangements  concerning  the  Potomac  be- 
came the  nucleus  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  and  the 
movement  for  the  formation  of  "a  more  perfect  union." 
From  the  creation  of  the  Capital  upon  the  banks  of  the  Poto- 
mac the  nation's  city  and  its  river  are  identified  with  na- 
tional history,  through  the  war  of  1812,  and  the  Civil  War, 
and  through  the  various  stages  of  peaceful  development 
down  to  the  present  day. 

I  feel  like  apologizing  for  the  present  appearance  of  our 
river,  which  has  evidently  been  on  a  high  old  tear  up  in 
.Maryland  and  Virginia,  and  now  moves  sluggishly  to  the 
Capital  and  Mt.  Vernon,  with  purity  defiled,  and  with  a 
next  morning's  biliousness  coffee-coloring  every  lineament. 
But  I  hope  that  our  legislators,  pardoning  the  Potomac's 
misbehavior,  will  be  inspired  as  the  result  of  their  inspec- 
tion of  its  relations  to  the  capital  to  utilize  our  great  and 
historic  river  to  its  full  capacity  for  the  benefit  of  the  health, 
trade  and  general  welfare  of  Washington.  An  unlimited 
and  wholesome  water  supply  is  tendered  the  Capital  if  our 
legislature  will  only  make  wise  and  adequate  provision  of 
aqueducts,  reservoirs,  settling  basins  and  filter  beds.  The 
river  will  also  serve  as  an  effective  transporting  agent  to 
sweep  the  capital's  sewage  harmlessly  into  the  sea,  if  Con- 
gress will  only  provide  the  comprehensive  system. which  is 
to  convey  the  sewage  to  a  safe  point  below  the  city  and 
commit  it  to  the  Potomac's  current.  When  the  malarious 
marshes  of  the  Anacostia,  as  well  as  of  the  Potomac,  have 


32 

been  banished,  the  quickened  waters  will  cut  large  slices 
from  the  District's  death  rate.  Public  baths  and  a  bathing 
beach  may  be  made  to  contribute  further  to  the  city's  health. 

We  of  Washington  must  master  the  Potomac,  harness  it 
and  put  it  to  work.  It  must  no  longer  be  permitted,  in  the 
absence  of  a  s<-n  wall  and  through  the  presence  of  Long 
Bridge,  to  threaten  the  city  with  flood;  or  unsettled  and  un- 
filtered,  to  permeate  with  the  historic  soil  of  Virginia  the 
physical  systems  of  those  of  us  who  are  accustomed  to 
drink  water;  or  to  disseminate  malaria  from  marshy  flats; 
or  being  practically  bridgeless,  so  far  as  modern  structures 
are  concerned,  to  obstruct  communication  with  Virginia 
and  the  South.  We  must  make  of  it  the  city's  faithful  ser- 
vant, as  a  cleansing  and  purifying  agent  fanning  the  capital 
with  cool  and  healthful  breezes,  bringing  pure  cold  water  to 
every  home,  quickly  removing  the  gas-generating  sewage, 
serving  through  its  recreated  fisheries  as  a  source  of  cheap 
and  abundant  food  supply,  fostering  light  manufactures  and 
furnishing  force  for  illuminating  and  transportation  pur- 
poses by  means  of  the  Great  and  Little  Falls  water  power, 
and  finally  in  its  dredged  and  deepened  channels  reviving 
the  ancient  commercial  glories  of  this  region  w7hen  George- 
town, Alexandria  and  Bladensburg  contended  for  the  su- 
premacy. 

While  thus  developing  the  usefulness  of  the  Potomac  in 
all  directions  for  the  purposes  of  peace,  the  National  Gov- 
ernment will  not  neglect  the  precautions  which  prevent 
the  river  from  being  an  easy  means  of  hostile  access  to  the 
Capital  in  time  of  war.  The  great  guns  which  sweep  the 
Potomac  not  many  miles  from  here,  and  the  mines  which 
lurk  under  its  waters  give  assurances  on  this  point. 

When  Washington  was  threatened  by  the  British  in  1814 
our  Secretary  of  War  scoffed  at  the  idea  that  the  enemy 
would  really  attack  what  he  sneeringly  designated  as  the 
"sheep-walk,"  and  the  capital  was  left  practically  unpro- 
tected. The  national  sentiment  toward  Washington  is  now 
far  different  from  that  which  then  prevailed.  Affectionate 
pride  has  taken  the  place  of  contemptuous  neglect. 

The  nation's  city  has  nothing  to  fear  from  either  the 
direct  or  indirect  effects  of  war,  unless  the  nation  itself  is 
overthrown,  in  which  event  the  capital  will  share  its  fate. 
The  truth  is  that  the  national  patriotic  sentiment  upon 
which  the  prosperity  of  both  the  Union  and  the  city  of  the 
Union  is  based,  weakens  from  disuse  and  neglect  in  times 


of  busy,  peaceful  money-making,  and  grows  strong  in  times 
of  national  danger,  when  Americans  appreciate  most  pro- 
foundly that  the  Union  is  not  u  mere  abstraction,  but  some- 
thing to  love,  to  live  for,  and  if  need  be,  to  die  for.  Herein 
is  found  one  of  the  compensations  of  war  to  counterbal- 
ance some  of  its  evil,  a  revival  and  new  birth  of  patriotism,  a. 
lepndiaiion  of  sectional  prejudices,  a  discarding  of  th<-  ol. 
strnctive  coverings  of  undue  love  of  money  and  of  cynical 
dislike  of  sentimentalism  with  which  the  American  is  too 
<;fien  accustomed  to  cover  and  conceal  the  national  pa- 
triotic sentiment. 

In  ('liiua  there  is  domestic  worship  of  the  god  of  wealth. 
In  Japan,  while  the  seven  gods  of  wealth  are  not  neglected, 
the  essence  of  the  national  religion — Shintoism —  is  patrio- 
tism, reverence  of  the  Emperor,  love  of  country.  Let  us 
observe  in  our  devotions  to  the  Almighty  Dollar  a  Japanese 
subordination  of  that  worship  to  patriotic  reverence  of  na- 
tive land,  placing  above  love  of  money  both  love  of  country 
and  love  of  God. 

The  city  of  the  Union,  created,  largely  owned  and  exclu- 
sively controlled  by  the  nation,  is  identified  in  its  fortunes 
with  the  Union  itself.  Washington  typifies  the  vitality,  con- 
tinued prosperity  and  grand  destiny  of  the  republic,  which 
it  shows  forth  in  miniature  and  which  it  is  destined  forever 
to  reflect.  From  the  bloodshed  of  the  revolution  the  nation 
and  its  capital  arose.  The  civil  war,  which  in  its  ultimate 
effects  tightened  the  bonds  of  union,  quickened  and  strength- 
ened a  wholesome  love  of  country,  and  made  the  republic  a 
unit,  strong  and  great,  developed  in  proportion  the  nation's 
city.  A  grander  and  more  perfect  capital,  as  well  as  a 
grander  and  more  perfect  union  sprang  from  the  smoke 
of  battle.  And  so  our  foreign  war  of  to-day  causes  the 
men  of  every  State  and  section  to  feel  that  first  of  all  they 
are  Americans,  and  that  in  modern  as  in  ancient  times 
iv  is  sweet  even  to  die  for  one's  county.  This  struggle  stirs 
the  patriot  blood  of  the  nation,  of  late  grown  somewhat 
sluggish,  dissipates  narrow  sectionalism,  solidifies  the  Union, 
and  broadens  and  strengthens  the  foundations  of  patriotic 
sentiment  upon  which  both  the  nation  and  the  nation's 
city  rest. 

In  war  and  peace,  in  prosperity  and  adversity,  in  life  and 
death,  the  republic  and  its  capital  are  one  and  inseparable. 


34 


Speech  as  President  of  the  Washington  Board  of 
Trade  at  the  Annual  Reception,  February  23, 
1899. 

At  this  yt -JIT'S  joint  session  in  the  Arlington  assembled  of 
Congress,  the  Capital's  only  legislature,  and  the  Washington 
Board  of  Trade,  representing  the  people  of  the  District,  there 
are  two  topics  which  demand  and  must  receive  immediate 
and  special  attention: 

1.  Washington  is  about  to  ask  Congress  to  accept  largely 
on  faith  and  to  enact  without  prolonged  debate  a  codification 
of  the  District  laws,  prepared  by  Judge  Cox,  and  now  under- 
going revision  and  approval  by  the  Bar  Association,  the  Dis- 
trict Commissioners,  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  the  citizens 
general^'. 

The  foundation  of  the  law  of  the  District  is  the  common 
law,  as  modified  by  old  British  statutes  "found  applicable 
to  local  and  other  circumstances"  in  Maryland  at  the  time 
of  the  first  English  emigration  to  that  colony,  and  as 
further  modified  by  old  Maryland  statutes  enacted  prior  to 
the  session  of  the  present  District  to  the  United  States. 
These  ancient  enactments  have  not  been  sufficiently  altered 
by  Congress  or  construed  out  of  existence  by  our  courts. 
The  local  statutes  have  been  aptly  compared  to  those  of  the 
Medes  and  Persians,  which  change  not.  Thus  it  happens 
that  many  of  our  basic  laws  date  from  a  time  when  American 
colonies  were  fining  men  in  tobacco  for  staying  home  from 
church,  or  boring  the  tongues  of  those  who  swore  as  many 
as  three  times,  or  punishing  scolding  women  with  the  duck- 
ing stool. 

The  Capital's  statutory  clothing  with  its  variegated  ma- 
terials displays  a  Joseph's  coat  of  many  colors,  and  in  dam- 
aged condition  and  antique  cut  it  suggests  Rip  Van  Winkle's 
costume  just  after  his  awakening. 

On  the  basic  material  of  the  common  law — now  consider- 
ably moth-eaten,  torn,  worn  threadbare,  hanging  in  tatters — 
luive  been  fastened  patches  of  old  British  and  Maryland  stat- 
utes, and  the  later  patches  of  occasional  acts  of  Congress. 
There  has  been  some  scientific  patching  of  comparatively 
recent  date,  and  the  courts  in  pursuance  of  their  power  of 
construing  the  statutes,  have  constructed  a  lining  for  the 
suit,  which,  without  materially  altering  its  antique  outward 
appearance,  renders  it  in  some  respects  much  more  com- 
fortable. But  the  greater  part  of  the  occasional  patches, 


35 

the  suit  was  first  fitted,  have  been  sewn  in  at  random, 
experimentally,  by  amateur  legislative  tailors,  adjusted  t<> 
no  want,  remedying  nothing,  and  only  adding  to  its  pictur- 
esque inutility  as  a  practical  covering  of  municipal  naked- 
ness. 

When  Maryland  ceded  the  land  now  constituting  the  Dis- 
trict that  State  was  protected  by  the  same  statutory  clothing 
with  which  the  Capital  was  blessed.  But  since  then  Mary- 
land has  been  periodically  and  at  frequent  intervals  supplied 
with  successive  suits  of  modern  legislation  in  conformity 
with  the  progress  and  fashion  of  the  times.  The  District's 
suit  of  the  end  of  the  last  century  has  never  received  a  com- 
preliensive  overhauling,  repairing  and  renovating. 

\\  e  need  a  new  suit  of  laws,  following  in  a  general  \va\ 
for  comfort's  sake  the  lines  to  which  we  have  grown  accus- 
tomed, but  reproducing  in  sound,  substantial  and  modern 
material  the  old  and  approved  pattern.  In  ridding  the  mu- 
nicipality of  mildewed  and  decayed  garments,  displaying 
rents  and  shreds  and  tatters,  some  improvements  in  modern 
cut  may  appropriately  be  secured  in  the  new  well-fitting 
suit.  We  desire  the  change,  even  though  the  proposed  gar- 
ments may  be  thought  to  show  obvious  defects.  At  their 
\\orst  they  will  respond  more  readily  to  mending  and  patch- 
ing than  the  hopelessly  antiquated  costume  which  now  pre- 
tends to  protect  the  community  from  municipal  hot  winds 
and  ic}"  blasts. 

So  let  our  legislators  bless  the  Capital  with  the  suit  ready- 
made  by  Judge  Cox,  and  approved  as  to  its  general  pattern 
by  the  whole  community.  Do  not  insist  that  it  shall  be  of 
the  precise  legislative  cut  to  which  you  are  accustomed  in 
your  home  State.  The  pattern  of  all  the  States  cannot  be 
followed.  Contention  over  the  matter  means  delay  and  de- 
nial. Give  to  the  Capital  its  new  suit  of  statutory  clothing 
and  give  it  ungrudgingly  and  promptly. 

'2.  Washington  proposes — and  the  President  of  the  United 
States  heartily  endorses  the  proposition — that  the  Nation 
and  the  National  Capital  co-operate  to  celebrate  worthily  in 
1!MK)  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  establishment  of  the 
Republic's  permanent  seat  of  government  in  the  District  of 
Columbia. 

The  changes  wrought  by  the  nineteenth  century  in  both 
Nation  and  Capital,  have  been  striking,  even  marvelous. 

In  1800  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  Republic's  r>.:iOO.OOO 
population  lived  within  fifty  miles  of  Atlantic  tidewater, 
scattered  through  a  thousand  miles  of  forest,  or  collected  in 


36 

u  few  seaport  towns.  Five  hundred  thousand  had  pene- 
trated the  Alleghaiiies  and  were  swallowed  up  in  an  inac- 
cessible wilderness,  separated  everywhere  from  the  sea-board 
population  by  at  least  a  hundred  miles  of  mountainous 
country.  Thus  the  Union  was  not  a  physical  unity.  Diffi- 
culties of  land  transit  kept  even  the  Americans  of  the  long, 
narrow  Atlantic  fringe  of  settlement  isolated  as  compara- 
tive strangers.  The  trans-Alleghany  settlers  had  even  less 
in  common  with  the  seaboard  population,  and  rather  looked 
forward  to  independent  development  with  an  outlet,  not  east- 
ward, but  southward,  through  the  Mississippi  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  Not  even  the  idea  of  the  unity  of  the  Union  was 
strongly  and  generally  developed  in  the  American  mind. 
There  was  no  great  confidence  of  the  quick  growth  of  a 
homogeneous  nation.  In  the  opinion  of  Thomas  Jefferson, 
a  statesman  accused  of  being  a  visionary  enthusiast,  the 
full  settlement  of  the  western  country  between  the  Alle- 
ghanies  and  the  Mississippi  would  not  be  accomplished  for 
thousands  of  years.  In  his  first  inaugural,  Jefferson  spoke 
of  our  country  as  furnishing  "room  for  our  descendants,  to 
the  hundredth  and  the  thousandth  generation."  The  same 
Jefferson,  usually  sanguine,  lacked  unwavering  confidence 
in  the  continued  unity  of  the  Republic,  and  spoke  at  times 
with  strange  indifference  concerning  its  possible  disintegra- 
tion. "Whether  we  remain  in  one  confederacy,"  he  wrote 
in  1804,  "or  form  into  Atlantic  and  Mississippi  confedera- 
tions, I  consider  not  very  important  to  the  happiness  of 
either  part." 

In  the  century  now  closing  the  republic  has  developed  into 
the  Union,  physically  and  in  spirit.  Territorial  acquisitions 
have  expanded  the  national  domain  from  ocean  to  oceanr 
and  the  nation  has  growrn  into  a  symmetrical  giant,  with 
mountain  backbone,  veins  and  arteries  of  rivers  and  lakes, 
sinews  of  steel  rails,  nerves  of  electric  wires,  intersecting, 
communicating  and  giving  unity  to  the  most  widely-separa- 
ted portions  of  the  nation's  body.  The  Union  is  also  one  of 
spirit.  The  growth  of  national  sentiment  has  been  continu- 
ous. That  principle  prevailed  in  the  Civil  War.  Since  that 
war  we  have  all  been  nominally  Unionists  and  Nationalists. 
Jn  the  war  with  Spain,  with  its  unification  of  reunited  sec- 
tions, the  nominal  has  become  the  real.  The  Union  is  one 
in  fact. 

In  1800  the  Republic  dominated  nothing,  not  even  with 
certainty  itself.  In  1900  it  will  dominate  one  hemisphere — 
and  a  slice  of  another;  it  will  control  an  isthmian  canal,  a 


37 

new  trans-continental  connection  between  the  A  thin  tie  and 
Pacific  States;  and  will  command  the  West  Indian  ;m<l 
Hawaiian  approaches  thereto.  It  will  move  irresistibly  to- 
ward trade  supremacy  in  the  favor  of  our  American  neigh- 
bors to  the  south  and  our  Asiatic  neighbors  to  the  west,  and 
whether  in  Atlantic  or  Pacific,  it  will  labor  effectively  ami 
with  enlightened  selfishness  for  the  common  good  of  Aim  n 
ca  and  all  mankind. 

The  growth  of  the  Capital  since  1800  has  kept  pace  with 
that  of  the  nation.  The  national  sentiment  which  trans- 
formed confederation  into  nominal  union,  created  the  ten 
miles  square  as  the  Union's  exclusive  territory,  the  material 
embodiment  of  that  national  principle.  The  Civil  War  con- 
tinued the  Union  as  a  legal  entity,  strengthened  immensely 
the  national  sentiment,  and  in  its  results  lifted  the  Capital 
from  the  mud  and  placed  it  upon  a  pinnacle.  The  Spanish 
war  made  a  reality  of  the  abstract  Union,  and  the  Capital 
promptly  responds  to  the  impetus  thereby  given  to  national 
sentiment.  Bryce,  in  the  American  Commonwealth,  says 
that  the  people  of  the  United  States,  owing  allegiance  to 
State  and  nation,  have  two  patriotisms,  two  loyalties.  We 
of  the  District  of  Columbia,  owing  allegiance  only  to  the 
nation,  have  only  one  patriotism,  one  loyalty.  We  are 
Americans  and  nothing  else.  Our  allegiance  is  undivided. 
Our  Americanism  is  unmixed,  exclusive,  all-pervading. 

In  1800  the  small  population  of  the  Capital  was  collected 
largely  in  two  settlements,  one  Hamburgh  on  Observatory 
Hill,  and  the  other  Carrollsburgh  on  James  Creek,  between 
the  Arsenal  and  the  Navy  Yard.  The  site  of  the  city  was 
marshes,  pastures,  dense  woods,  and  some  cultivated  ground, 
where  wheat,  tobacco  and  Indian  corn  were  raised.  For 
much  of  its  length  Pennsylvania  avenue  was  "a  deep  morass. 
Covered  with  alder  bushes."  Massachusetts  avenue  n-a  versed 
(on  paper)  a  boggy,  undrained  wilderness.  Oliver  Wolcott, 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  said  that  you  might  look  in  al- 
most any  direction  over  an  extent  of  ground  nearly  as  large 
as  the  city  of  New  York  without  seeing  a  single  fern 
any  object  except  brick  kilns  and  temporary  huts  for  labor- 
ers. Another  disgusted  statesman  described  the  embryo 
city  of  1800  as  "a  mud-hole  almost  equal  to  the  great  Serbon- 
ian  bog." 

The  Capital  of  1900  is  approximately  before  our  eyes  and 
does  not  need  detailed  description.  Upon  these  swamps 
and  pastures  has  arisen  America's  most  attractive  city,  in 
percentage  of  smooth  street  surface  foremost  among  the 


23-8578 


38 

municipalities  of  the  world;  adorned  with  imposing  public 
buildings  and  with  private  residences  of  the  most  varied 
and  pleasing  architecture;  a  forest  city  with  a  hundred  thou- 
sand shade  trees;  a  city  of  parks  and  small  reservations, 
made  beautiful  by  the  landscape  gardener  and  the  sculptor; 
n  ciiy  last  creating  a  model  rapid  transit  system,  and  in 
many  other  branches  of  municipal  development  approach- 
ing the  ideal. 

In  1800  a  new  nation  set  up  housekeeping  in  its  distinc- 
tive permanent  home  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac.  The 
daughters  of  the  family,  children  of  the  then  recently  de- 
ceased confederation,  step-daughters  of  the  Union,  while  al- 
ways welcome  at  the  homestead  lived  in  residences,  State 
capitals,  of  their  own.  There  was  another  daughter,  Colum- 
bia, child  of  the  Union  in  a  peculiar  sense,  who,  like  Eve 
from  Adam's  side,  like  Minerva  from  Jove's  brain,  issued 
from  the  nation's  heart,  flesh  of  its  flesh,  blood  of  its  blood, 
soul  of  its  soul.  Non-existent  prior  to  Union,  Columbia 
knew  no  other  life  than  that  derived  from  the  nation,  and 
owed  no  divided  allegiance  and  affection.  In  her  veins  the 
national  blood  flowed  purest. 

At  birth  Columbia  was  endowed  with  funds  deemed  ade- 
quate for  her  suitable  maintenance.  But  in  course  of  time 
her  guardians,  some  indifferent,  some  jealous  that  she  em- 
bodied a  national  power  superior  to  that  of  her  stately  sis 
ters,  wasted  her  maintenance  fund,  and  neglected  and  abused 
the  child  of  the  Union.  The  circumstances  of  her  birth,  the 
equities  and  the  pledges  in  respect  to  her  support,  the  un- 
mixed national  blood  that  flowed  in  her  veins  were  all  for- 
gotten. She  was  ridiculed  and  despised  as  a  charity  child 
by  these  guardians  guilty  of  a  breach  of  trust.  She  was 
threatened  with  destruction,  punished  and  starved. 

As  the  Cinderella  of  the  family  she  was  compelled  to  sleep 
among  the  pots  and  pans,  to  make  companions  of  rats  and 
mice,  and  to  dress  in  rags,  while  her  proud  State  sisters 
Haunted  before  her  their  finery. 

But,  in  due  course  the  fairy  godmother  appeared.  She 
appealed  to  the  memory  and  conscience  of  Columbia's  guar- 
dians. Her  magic  wand  was  "the  fine,  strong  spirit  of 
American  nationality."  At  its  transforming  touch  the  hum- 
ble surroundings  of  the  modern  Cinderella  have  been  glori- 
fied. Dust  and  vermin  and  rags  have  disappeared,  and  the 
child  of  the  Union  (as  universally  beloved  as  the  Union  it- 
self) adorned  as  becomes  her  birth  and  station  and  natural 
attractiveness,  takes  her  proper  place  in  the  family  circle,  no 


39 

longer  despised  and  neglected.  l,m  :m  object  of  alTect  innate 
ami  admiring  regard  to  everyone  in  Tilde  Sam's  household 
who  responds  to  the  magic  invocation  of  patriotic  national 
sentiment. 

\Ve,  assembled  here  to-night,  national  legislators  and  peo- 
ple of  the  Federal  District,  are  joint  partners  in  the  guard- 
ianship of  Columbia's  interests,  and  as  such  are  to  see  that 
the  close  of  a  miracle-working  century  in  the  history  of  the 
Nation  and  the  Capital  is  worthily  celebrated. 


Speech    as    President   of    the    Washington    Board   of 
Trade  at  the  Annual  Shad-bake,  May  6,  1899. 

At  this  year's  shad-bake  the  Washington  Board  of  Trade 
welcomes  especially  the  executive  branch  of  its  govern- 
ment. Our  Congressional  aldermen  and  common  council- 
nien,  with  few  exceptions,  miss  this  customary  pleasure. 
The  saddest  result  of  the  present  irrational  arrangement  of 
Congressional  sessions,  is  that  our  legislators  lose  every  sec- 
ond year  this  sail  upon  the  Potomac,  this  pleasing  assault 
upon  the  toothsome  shad,  with  the  incidental  excitement 
of  dodging  a  superheated  sun  or  occasional  showers,  and 
of  collecting  in  person  Mayday  reminders  in  the  shape  of  the 
earnest,  persevering  tick  and  the  active,  wandering  ant. 
Above  all,  they  lose  the  opportunity  of  communing  closely 
with  the  people  of  Washington,  and  thus  a  new  Congress  is 
in  December  precipitated  into  the  most  important  local  legis- 
lation, totally  unprepared. 

The  executive  department  forms  an  integral  and  import- 
ant part  of  the  Capital's  make-up.  It  adds  to  the  popula- 
tion a  peaceful  army  over  twenty  thousand  strong,  who 
more  or  less  stable  in  tenure  of  office  during  good  behavior 
under  the  merit  system,  secure  homes  for  themselves  and 
families  and  constitute  an  intelligent  and  influential  factor  in 
the  genuine,  permanent  Washington.  The  commanders-in- 
chief  of  this  peaceful  army  from  Washington  to  McKinley 
have  been  friends,  well-wishers  and  practical  promoters  of 
the  welfare  of  the  nation's  city.  The  .affectionate  interest 
shown  by  the  great  men  of  the  past  in  the  minutiae  of  the 
Capital's  concerns  puts  to  shame  the  indifference  in  respect 
to  it  felt  or  expressed  by  some  public  men  of  the  present, 
who  seem  to  think  it  beneath  their  dignity  and  an  uncom- 
pcnsated  and  inexcusable  waste  of  time  and  of  excessively 


40 

valuable  brain-matter  to  concern  themselves  at  all  about 
the  affairs  of  the  nation's  city. 

The  river  whose  broad  expanse  is  spread  before  us  teaches 
an  object-lesson  on  this  point.  General  Washington,  at  the 
height  of  his  fame,  the  victorious  leader  of  the  American 
revolutionary  forces,  soon  about  to  become  the  republic's 
first  President,  thought  it  not  beneath  him  to  explore  in  a 
canoe  the  upper  waters  of  the  Potomac  in  order  to  increase 
its  navigability  and  to  promote  its  national  usefulness.  To- 
day our  great  men  neglect  even  the  broad,  deep  estuary  of 
the  tide-water  Potomac,  and  permit  the  guns  at  Indian  Head 
and  the  Capital's  navy  yard  on  the  Potomac's  main  tributary 
to  become  inaccessible  to  battleships,  and  to  all  vessels  of 
great  draught. 

The  evil  results  of  this  neglect  of  the  navy  yard  and  of  the 
Anacostia,  are  especially  notable.  Here  in  the  early  days 
was  a  noble  stream,  easily  navigable  as  far  up  as  Bladens- 
burg,  which  town  has  been  described  as  a  "sea  port,"  and 
which  then  shipped  large  quanties  of  tobacco  in  commercial 
competition  with  Alexandria  and  Georgetown.  The  Ana- 
costia was  wholesome  and  health-giving,  as  well  as  beauti- 
ful, and  the  land  at  its  confluence  writh  the  Potomac,  the 
site  of  Carrollsburg  hamlet,  was  thought  to  be  the  most  de- 
sirable and  valuable  portion  of  the  National  Capital.  Now 
through  natural  sedimentary  deposits,  allowed  through  neg- 
lect to  accumulate,  and  artificially  fostered  through  the  per- 
mission of  the  authorities  to  construct  low,  drawless  ob- 
structive bridges  across  the  Anacostia,  the  stream  is  no 
longer  navigable  except  at  its  very  mouth,  and  even  there 
vessels  of  large  draught  may  not  reach  the  nation's  navy 
jard.  No  longer  a  healthful  and  desirable  section,  the  por- 
tion of  the  cit}-  at  the  confluence  of  the  streams  suffers  from 
the  marshy  flats  which,  covered  with  sewage,  and  exposed 
to  the  sun  at  low  tide,  poison  the  air,  sending  disease  and 
death  to  the  Navy  Yard,  Insane  Asylum,  Arsenal  and  Capi- 
tal, and  to  the  schools  and  homes  of  citizens.  The  same  con- 
ditions and  the  same  neglect  which  caused  the  Potomac  liars 
developed  this  nuisance  also.  The  same  remed.y  which  Con- 
gress applied  to  the  Potomac  problem  should  likewise  be  util- 
ized here.  There  is  no  just  ground  of  discrimination  between 
the  two  cases.  In  both  the  navigability  of  a  large  river,  con- 
stituting a  part  of  the  harbor  of  the  nation's  city,  is  to  be 
restored.  In  both  the  public  health  is  incidentally  conserved 
by  the  abatement  of  a  nuisance.  The  fact  that  the  disease 
germs  from  the  Anacostia  blow  especially  upon  the  legisla- 


41 

tive  branch  of  government,  while  the  Potomac  flats,  now 
reclaimed,  have  ceased  to  infect  the  White  House  neighbor- 
hood, should  not  be  a  retarding  consideration  in  the  recla- 
mation of  the  Anacostia;  Congress,  having  protected  the 
President,  should  not  be  permitted  to  continue,  self-sacriflc- 
ingly,  to  expose  itself  to  the  deady  microbes.  We  must  save 
Congress  from  and  in  spite  of  itself.  Nor  should  the  ab- 
sence of  log-rolling  facilities  in  the  case  of  this  broad,  well 
\\atered  stream  prevent  it  from  receiving  consideration 
among  the  streaks  of  moisture  which  are  occasionally  given 
legislative  existence  and  supplied  with  visible  water  through 
items  of  appropriation  in  the  river  and  harbor  bill. 

Many  other  great  men  besides  George  Washington  have 
taken  lively  interest  in  the  national  city  and  river.  In  1833 
President  Jackson  strongly  urged  the  construction  of  an  im- 
posing and  adequate  bridge  across  the  Potomac  to  replace  the 
old  Long  Bridge,  built  in  1808  by  private  subscriptions, which 
had  been  swept  away  in  part  by  a  freshet.  Jackson's  plan 
contemplated  a  noble  structure,  in  part  of  granite,  and  was 
to  cost  between  two  and  five  million  dollars,  according  to 
the  varying  estimates  of  the  engineers.  But  the  spirit  of 
false  economy  in  Congress  finally  prevailed  even  over  the 
iron  will  of  Old  Hickory.  The  bridge  was  rebuilt  cheaply 
with  the  solid  causeway  embankments,  numerous  piers,  and 
the  low-lying  structure  which  from  that  day  have  made  it 
to  Washington  a  flood-threatening  dam.  The  engineer  who 
built  it  gloomily  refused  to  predict  a  long  life  for  it,  and 
threw  the  blame  for  its  existence  upon  a  scrimping,  slum 
sighted  Congress.  Periodically,  the  freshets  have  broken 
through  some  portion  of  the  obstruction,  often  turned  upon 
and  flooding  the  city  before  they  succeeded  in  knocking  out 
the  dam.  Periodically,  with  asinine  persistence,  the  old 
structure  has  been  restored.  Even  the  great  and  progressive 
railroad,  to  which  the  bridge's  use  was  conditionally  do- 
nated in  1870,  has  not  been  ashamed  to  maintain  this  threat 
ening  nuisance,  and  it  exists  to-day  in  all  its  dangerous  ob- 
structiveness  and  original  ugliness,  a  disgrace  to  the  rail- 
road, to  the  Capital,  to  Congress,  and  to  the  whole  nation. 
whose  historic  river  is  thus  defaced  and  whose  city  is  thus 
endangered. 

May  we  not  in  1900  rise  to  the  height  of  Jackson's  idea  of 
3833?  If  Jackson  could  without  loss  of  dignity  display  this 
deep  interest  in  a  bridge  across  the  Potomac,  may  not  any 
public  man  of  to-day,  however  lofty,  safely  pursue  a  similar 
course?  Could  there  be  a  finer  opportunity  for  such  a  man. 


42 

while  still  living,  to  erect  to  himself  a  monument?  A  me- 
morial to  a  civilian  in  the  republic  must,  it  appears,  be  of 
his  own  construction,  like  St.  Paul's  as  a  memorial  of  Sir 
<  'hristopher  Wren,  or  modern  Washington  as  a  memorial  of 
Alexander  R.  Shepherd.  War  heroes  monopolize  apparent- 
ly the  public  statues  erected  by  a  grateful  republic.  What 
civilian  then  will  take  up  Jackson's  uncompleted  plan  and,, 
pushing  it  to  success,  build  for  himself  a  monument  more 
enduring  than  that  of  his  owrn  figure  in  bronze  or  marble? 

The  Potomac  is  practically  bridgeless,  so  far  as  modern, 
adequate  structures  are  concerned.  Its  mile  expanse  of 
breadth,  crossed  only  by  rickety,  ramshackle  bridges,  sepa- 
rates the  north  and  south,  hems  in  one  side  the  expanding 
Capital  and  isolates  our  Virginian  suburban  settlements. 
The  welfare  of  the  nation's  city  and  due  respect  for  the  na- 
tion's river,  unite  in  demanding  a  radical  change  in  these 
conditions.  In  addition  to  its  practical  uses. .  present  and 
prospective,  as  the  cleanser  of  the  city's  sewers,  as  the  pur- 
veyor of  pure  and  wholesome  water,  as  its  source  of  a  cheap 
and  abundant  food  supply,  and  as  a  motive  power,  which  at 
Great  and  Little  Falls  shall  furnish  electricity  to  run  our 
cars  and  light  our  streets,  the  historic  Potomac  has  been 
a  political  and  patriotic  factor  in  the  Republic's  annals.  In 
the  early  days  it  played  a  unifying  part  like  that  then  and 
now  performed  by  the  nation's  city  itself.  It  bound  together 
the  long,  narrow  belt  of  Atlantic  coast  settlements,  and 
those  of  the  Mississippi  basin,  which  were  separated  every- 
where from  the  seashore  population  by  at  least  a  hundred 
miles  of  mountainous  country,  and  which  apparently  looked 
foi  ward  to  independent  existence  with  an  outlet  southward 
through  the  Mississippi  rather  than  eastward  to  the  Atlan- 
tic. The  Potomac,  one  of  the  world's  great  rivers,  seven 
miles  wide  at  its  mouth,  pierced  the  republic  at  its  narrow, 
central  point,  and  extended  itself  for  four  hundred  milesr 
nearly  to  the  border  of  the  thirteen  colonies,  and  to  the  tribu- 
taries of  the  Ohio  in  the  Mississippi  basin.  Through  a  sys- 
ii  in  of  canals,  and  up-river  improvements,  in  accordance 
with  a  plan  devised  by  the  far-seeing  Washington,  it  prom- 
ised to  the  isolated  Western  settlements  another  outlet  than 
the  Mississippi,  and  suggested  a  means  of  communication  be- 
tween the  two  distinct  and  widely-separated  groups  of  Amer- 
ican communities.  For  years  the  Potomac  thus  kept  the 
East  and  West  in  touch  until  at  last  the  railroads  took  up 
the  task  and  linked  the  sections  with  bands  of  steel.  By 
means  of  the  river  and  the  wide-spreading  streams  which 


43 

united  to  form  it,  the  nation  from  its  capital  extended  \\.->t 
ward  an  arm,  a  hand  and  outstretched  fingers,  ami  grasp- 
ing   tlic    Mississippi    setth  ments    held    them    Hrmly    to    the 
I'uion. 

As  it  was  thus  in  the  beginning  a  bond  between  the  Kast 
and  the  West,  so  the  Potomac  should  now  be  a  bond  be 
tween  the  North  and  South,  connecting,  instead  of  separai 
ii'-  iliem.  While  the  latter  sections  were  at  sword's  point, 
in  sentiment  or  in  fact,  a  practically  bridgeless  Potomar. 
holding  them  apart,  might  as  a  symbol  have  been  natural 
and  defensible.  But  now  in  the  reunion  of  the  States  the 
Potomac  should  re-enact  its  historic  part  as  a  unifier  and 
bind  together  through  adequate  connecting  bridges  the  once 
hostile  sections. 

The  grandest  and  most  fitting  memorial  with  which  to 
commemorate  the  centennial  of  the  National  Capital  and 
the  greater  America,  which  a  miracle-working  century  has 
developed,  would  be  a  memorial  bridge  across  the  Potomac 
to  Arlington,  whose  national  patriotic  function  it  should  be 
to  connect  the  Union's  capital  with  the  State  of  the  late  Con 
federacy's  capital,  to  bridge  the  watery  chasm  between  the 
sections,  to  unite  the  nation's  city  of  the  living  with  the  city 
of  the  nation's  dead;  a  cemetery  now  truly  national  since, 
with  the  bones  of  those  who  died  to  save  the  Union  in  Civil 
War  have  been  laid  the  remains  of  men  from  South  and 
North,  and  East  and  West,  who  died  for  the  whole  great  and 
re-united  Republic.  Let  the  memorial  bridge  symbolize  this 
reunion,  this  national  expansion  and  development. 

As  the  Potomac,  rising  in  the  original  West  and  connect- 
ing the  northern  and  southern  colonies,  through  the  numer- 
ous tributaries  to  its  waters  combined  these  national  ele- 
ments in  a  majestic  stream  and  broadened  and  deepened  in 
its  course  until  it  poured  a  vast  volume  into  the  outside 
ocean,  so  moves  with  ever-expanding  and  beneficent  flow 
the  great  river  of  American  national  spirit  and  influ- 
ence— developed  in  the  mingling  of  North.  South.  Kast  and 
West  in  the  nation's,  city  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac: 
ijiiickened  by  the  memory  of  the  great  man,  who.  living 
though  dead,  influences  the  world  from  Mt.Vernon:  strength- 
ened by  the  sacrifices  of  the  patriots  who  died  for  the  Union 
in  the  sixties  and  the  nineties,  who  still  speak  to  America 
though  buried  at  Arlington:  combining  into  one  stream  the 
ever  increasing  influences  of  the  nation's  city  of  the  living 
and  of  its  cities  of  the  dead,  and  pouring  this  vast  whole- 


44 

some  and  vitalizing  volume  into  the  thought  and  tendencies 
to  action  of  the  outside  world. 

The  man  who  lies  at  Mt.  \Yrnon  died  as  a  creator  of  the 
Union.  Those  resting  at  Arlington  died  for  the  sake  of  that 
Union.  At  the  confluence  of  the  Anacostia  and  the  Potomac 
live  representative  Americans  who  are  developing  the  Union 
of  to-day — the  greater  America — into  the  dominant  force  in 
one  hemisphere  and  a  power  for  good  in  all  the  world.  Let 
the  men  of  the  nation's  city  so  live  and  so  act  that  the  Union, 
for  which  the  men  of  Arlington  and  Mt.  Vernon  died,  shall 
strengthen  and  expand,  and  more  and  more  from  year  to 
year  shall  perform  the  grand  functions  and  fulfill  the  divine 
purposes  for  which  it  was  created. 


Report  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Public 
Library  of  the  Washington  Board  of  Trade,  March 
27,  1894. 

"Why  is  there  not  a  majesty's  library  in  every  county 
town?  There  is  a  majesty's  jail  and  gallows  in  every  one." 
The  reproach  of  Carlyle's  question  of  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury ago  has  been  in  large  measure  removed  in  England 
through  the  series  of  public  libraries  acts;  and  in  New  Eng- 
land, also,  and  in  many  States  of  other  sections  of  the  Re- 
public, majesty's  libraries — libraries  of  the  American  maj- 
esty, the  people — are  far  more  numerous  and  conspicuous 
than  the  jails.  The  school  and  the  library,  twin  agencies  of 
education,  lessen  the  need  for  the  prison,  and  push  it  into  the 
background. 

AN    EDUCATING   AND    CIVILIZING   AGENT. 

To-day  there  is  general  recognition  of  the  important  edu- 
cational position  of  the  free  circulating  library  and  reading- 
room,  accessible  at  hours  when  their  treasures  can  be  uti- 
lized by  students,  both  from  schools  and  colleges,  and  from 
among  the  working  people,  whose  daylight  hours  are  largely 
occupied  in  bread-winning.  Especially  are  such  libraries  ap- 
preciated in  this  land  of  free  schools.  In  State  after  State, 
responding  to  the  popular  demand  for  these  educating  and 
civilizing  agencies,  has  legislation  been  enacted  to  supply 
each  little  municipal  subdivision  at  the  taxpayer's  expense. 
So  notable  has  been  this  movement  that  it  has  been  reason- 


45 

ably  predicted  that  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century 
will  go  down  in  history  as  the  age  of  electricity  and  free 
libraries.  The  progressive  community  needs  the  public 
library  as  it  does  the  telegraph  and  telephone.  It  is  on  the 
same  footing  with  the  common  school;  it  is  the  free  uni- 
versity of  the  people.  In  the  public  school  a  liking  for  books, 
a  desire  and  thirst  for  knowledge,  may  naturally  be  acquired. 
The  library  develops  this  liking  and  meets  and  gratifies  this 
desire.  The  school  imparts  the  ability  to  educate  one's  self 
by  the  intelligent  use  of  books.  The  library  supplements  this 
instruction  by  providing  the  means  and  opportunity  for  such 
self-education.  As  Commissioner  W.  T.  Harris,  of  the 
I'.nreau  of  Education,  has  aptly  stated:  "The  school  teaches 
how  to  read — how  to  use  the  printed  page  to  get  out  of  it  all 
that  it  contains.  The  library  furnishes  what  to  read:  it 
opens  the  storehouse  of  all  human  learning.  These  two  are 
complementary  functions  in  the  great  work  of  education." 

The  library  is,  then,  a  true  university,  both  for  the  grad- 
uates of  the  public  schools  and  for  the  whole  people,  without 
regard  to  class,  or  sex,  or  age,  or  wealth,  or  previous  condi- 
tion of  servitude  to  ignorance.  The  people  eagerly  avail 
themselves  of  the  educational  opportunities  offered  by  the 
public  library.  It  raises  the  whole  community  to  a  higher 
intellectual  plane.  It  is  also  not  without  its  beneficent  in- 
tiuence  as  a  moral  agent.  In  some  of  the  small  New  Eng- 
land towns  the  record  shows  that  as  many  as  one  out  of 
every  five  inhabitants,  counting  men,  women,  and  children, 
is  registered  as  a  borrower  of  library  books.  More  persons. 
have  there  registered  to  read  than  have  registered  to  vote. 
The  statistics  also  show  that,  at  first,  fiction  was  most  largely 
drawn  upon  by  such  readers,  but  that,  as  the  taste  for  read 
ing  was  developed,  stronger  food  for  the  mind  was  demanded, 
and  the  ratio  of  serious  reading  steadily  increased.  The 
reading-room  has  proved  and  will  prove  a  strong  rival  to  all 
demoralizing  resorts  in  claims  upon  the  evenings  of  many, 
especially  the  young,  and  has  served  and  will  serve  more  and 
more  as  a  satisfactory  substitute  for  nightly  idleness  in 
dreary  lodgings  or  on  the  streets. 

WASHINGTON   HAS    NO    FREE    TEOPLE'S    LIBRARY. 

What  rarlyle  sought  for  each  English  county  town.  :ind 
what  many  English  and  American  villages  now  enjoy,  the 
National  <  'apital  lacks  and  seeks  to  obtain.  It  is  fast  becom- 
ing the  Republic's  educational  center.  Universities  are 


46 


founded  in  rapid  succession  within  its  limits.  But  the  great 
free  library  university,  for  those  whom  Lincoln  lovingly 
called  the  common  people,  is  yet  to  be  created.  According 
to  the  statistics  there  are  much  more  than  a  million  books  in 
the  semi-public  libraries  of  Washington — about  a  twentieth 
of  all  in  the  Republic;  and  when  these  have  been  apportioned 
among  the  citizens  after  the  methods  of  statisticians  it  ap- 
pears that  the  District  workingman  has  fourteen  times  as 
many  public  books  as  the  average  American.  And  the  only 
difficulty  is  that  he  cannot  possibly  make  any  use  of  them 
whatsoever. 

The  resident  in  the  more  elevated  sections  of  Washington 
who  could  get  no  water  on  the  upper  floors  of  his  house,  and 
\i-ry  little  on  any  floor,  saw  countless  gallons  wasted  in  the 
departments,  in  fountains  and  otherwise,  and  learned  from 
statistics  that  he  and  the  other  citizens  were,  in  per  capita 
average  of  gallons  daily  used,  among  the  largest  con- 
sumers of  water  in  the  country.  The  population  of  the 
Capital,  credited  with  fourteen  times  their  due  proportion  of 
books,  and  without  a  single  available  lending  library  with 
i  cuding-roooms  open  at  night,  without  even  the  command 
of  books  enjoyed  by  the  working  people  of  little  Northern 
and  Western  towns,  detect  a  similar  mockery  in  the  library 
statistics.  No  satisfactory  substitute  either  for  actual  water 
or  actual  books  is  furnished  by  complimentary  statistics. 

WANT   AMIDST   PLENTY. 

The  departmental  libraries  at  the  Capital  contain  nearly 
three  hundred  thousand  volumes,  accessible  only  to  a  few 
employees  of  the  Government,  and  closed  to  them  early  in 
the  afternoon.  The  vast  wealth  of  reading  matter  in  the 
Congressional  Library  is  practically  out  of  reach  of  the 
\\  orkinginen  and  school  children,  owing  to  the  hours  of  open- 
ing and  closing  and  the  conditions  placed  upon  the  enjoy- 
ment of  its  privileges.  Not  one  of  the  great  Government 
collections  is  open  in  the  evening,  when  alone  the  great  mass 
of  the  people  can  use  the  books.  There  are  fifty-two  libraries 
in  the  District,  each  containing  over  one  thousand  volumes, 
and  not  one  of  them  is  a  free  lending  library,  with  a  reading- 
room  open  at  night  for  the  benefit  of  the  general  public. 
Such  an  institution  is  the  most  urgent  need  of  the  National 
Capital.  Viewing  this  ocean  of  more  than  a  million  books, 
spread  tantalizingly  before  them,  the  workingmen,  the  school 
children,  the  Government  clerks,  the  great  mass  of  the  citi- 


47 

'/ens  of  Washington,  thirsty  for  tin-  knowledge  which  comi-s 
from  reading,  may  well  exclaim  with  the  Am-ii-ni  .Mariner: 
"Water,  water  everywhere,  nor  any  drop  to  drink!" 

A  great  national  reference  library  for  the  world's  scholars 
does  not  prevent  in  other  capitals  the  existence  of  nuineron- 
popular  libraries,  and  should  not  in  Washington.  "In  I  .on 
don,  where  the  British  Museum,  with  its  vast  library  of  over 
two  million  volumes,  is  still  sacred  to  scholars,  there  an- 
thirty  local  libraries,  in  addition  to  many  special  libraries, 
open  to  various  classes  of  students.  In  Paris,  win-re  tin- 
great  national  library  is  only  open  to  readers  well  armed 
with  credentials,  there  are  sixty-four  popular  libraries,  while 
I.erlin  has  twenty-five." 

THIRTY-THREE   THOUSAND    CHILDREN    DEMAND   A    FREE 

LIBRARY. 

To  meet  the  absolute  necessity  of  books  as  working  ad- 
juncts in  the  public  schools,  small  libraries  have  been  formed 
in  connection  with  some  of  the  buildings,  and  the  High 
School  has  a  very  creditable  collection.  But  to  complete 
and  perfect  its  educational  system,  already  so  admirable,  by 
adding  the  people's  free  university  to  the  free  school.  Wash 
ington  absolutely  needs  the  proposed  public  library,  as  an  aid 
to  the  development  of  intelligent  men  and  women,  the  good 
Americans  of  the  future,  the  pillars  of  the  Republic.  Its 
creation  is  demanded  in  the  name  of  the  63,000  children  of 
school  age  in  the  District,  and  especially  in  the  name  of  the 
33,000  of  this  number  who  are  over  twelve  years  of  age. 

TWENTY  THOUSAND   GOVERNMENT    EMPLOYERS  DEMAND 
A    FREE   LIBRARY. 

Investigation  of  the  departmental  libraries  shows  that  a 
very  large  percentage  of  their  three  hundred  thousand  vol- 
umes is  composed  of  technical  books  and  books  of  refereiu ... 
which  have  a  direct  bearing  on  the  work  of  the  department 
which  possesses  them;  that  there  are  only  between  twenty 
thousand  and  thirty  thousand  volumes  suitable  for  a  general 
circulating  library,  and  these  are  confined  mainly  to  three 
departments.  The  Interior  Department,  with  10,000  vol- 
umes, and  the  War  and  Treasury  Departments,  with  r>.oou 
volumes  each,  possess  nearly  all  these  books.  The  clerks  in 
the  departments  which  have  no  libraries  need  and  demand 
them,  and  the  favored  departments  need  a  wider  range  of 


48 

reading  material  than  the  small  collection  at  the  disposal  of 
each  provides.  There  are,  in  round  numbers,  about  twenty 
thousand  persons  residing  in  Washington  who  draw  salaries 
from  the  Government.  Many  of  these  represent  families, 
and  The  number  of  readers  in  this  Government  constituency 
can  therefore  be  estimated  only  by  the  customary  multiplica- 
tion of  the  number  of  Government  employees.  In  the  name, 
also,  of  this  numerous  and  book-loving  element  of  the  popu- 
lation the  creation  of  the  proposed  local  library  is  demanded. 

TWENTY-THREE     THOUSAND    WORKINGMEN     DEMAND     A 
FREE    LIBRARY. 

Last,  but  not  least,  comes  a  powerful  appeal  from  the  Dis- 
trict workingman.  Sometimes,  in  view  of  the  notable  ab- 
sence from  the  Capital  of  dirty,  noisy  factories,  which  would 
tend  to  reduce  the  city's  attractiveness  as  a  place  of  resi- 
dence, the  question  is  raised,  "Is  there  any  such  individual 
as  the  District  workingman?"  The  census  of  1890  discloses 
the  fact  that,  while  it  is  the  policy  of  the  Capital  to  encour- 
age only  light  and  clean  manufacturing,  like  that  of  Paris, 
over  twenty-three  thousand  adults  were  engaged  in  the  Dis- 
trict in  lines  of  work  which  are  classed  as  manufactures, 
omitting  from  consideration  entirely  all  the  other  numerous 
forms  of  labor.  Nineteen  thousand  of  these  are  engaged  in 
purely  local  industries.  Over  four  thousand  are  discovered 
to  be  in  Government  employ,  mainly  in  the  Government 
Printing  Office  and  the  Bureau  of  Engraving  and  Printing. 
It  appears  from  this  report  that  there  were  in  1890  in  the 
District  twenty-three  hundred  manufacturing  establish- 
ments with  a  capital  of  $28,876,258,  paying  in  wages  $14,- 
638,790,  using  materials  costing  $17,187,752,  and  with  pro- 
ducts of  the  value  of  $39,296,259. 

To  the  census  figures  must  be  added  the  thousands  of 
workingmen  engaged  in  other  lines  of  work  not  classed  as 
manufactures,  and  then  this  number  must  be  multiplied, 
since  many  are  the  heads  of  families,  to  ascertain  the  num- 
ber of  readers,  and,  in  behalf  of  this  great  multitude  of  peo- 
ple, a  free  lending  library  and  night  reading-room  are  now 
demanded. 

ALL   WASHINGTON    APPEALS    FOR    A    FREE    LIBRARY. 

While  attention  has  been  called  to  certain  elements  of  the 
population  as  standing  in  special  need  of  library  facilities,  it 


49 

is  to  be  remembered  that  only  a  small  fraction  of  all  the  peo- 
ple in  Washington  have  the  leisure  to  utilize  and  fiijuv  ;l 
public  library  during  daylight  hours,  so  that  practically  ;i 
whole  city  of  250,000  inhabitants  makes  this  appeal. 

HOW    THE    BOOKS     MAY    BE     OBTAINED. 

The  first  need  of  the  free  library — books — can  easily  be 
supplied.  The  librarian  of  Congress  states  that  there  are 
many  thousands  of  duplicates  in  the  Congressional  Library 
suitable  for  the  purposes  of  this  circulating  library,  which 
can  be  spared  for  such  use  if  Congress  will  consent,  and  he 
has  formally  approved  the  granting  of  such  consent  by  Con- 
gress. 

The  existing  departmental  circulating  libraries  might  be 
added  to  these  books  from  the  Library  of  Congress  and  made 
into  a  general  departmental  library,  to  which  the  people  of 
the  District  not  employed  by  the  Government  might  also 
have  access.  The  circulating  books,  numbering  between 
twenty  thousand  and  thirty  thousand,  accessible  in  the  main 
only  to  the  clerks  in  three  of  the  Departments  and  acces- 
sible to  them  only  so  far  as  the  fraction  contained 
in  their  own  library  is  concerned,  would,  if  col- 
lected in  a  general  departmental  library,  be  opened 
to  all  the  clerks  in  all  the  Departments.  A  great  body 
of  Government  employees  would  enjoy  privileges  of  which 
they  are  now  entirely  deprived.  Those  now  having  a  depart- 
mental circulating  library  at  hand,  instead  of  being  limited 
to  its  five  thousand  or  ten  thousand  volumes,  would  have 
access  to  more  than  twenty  thousand  in  the  general  library, 
augmented  by  large  additions  from  the  Congressional  Li- 
brary and  by  private  contributions,  which,  if  the  library  were 
once  started,  would  undoubtedly  be  considerable.  The 
clerks  in  the  particular  buildings  in  which  the  circulating 
departmental  libraries  are  now  accommodated  might  suffer 
a  trifling  inconvenience  from  the  removal  of  the  books  for  a 
short  distance,  but  catalogues  of  the  library  should  be  in  all 
the  Departments,  and  delivery  branches  established  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  city.  This  inconvenience  would  thus  be  re- 
duced to  a  minimum,  and  as  an  offset  to  it  would  be  the  finer 
library  to  which  these  clerks  would  have  access  and  the  pub- 
lic benefit  of  a  great  expansion  of  the  number  of  readers  to 
whom  the  accumulated  books  would  be  available.  Other  De- 
partments and  bureaus  than  those  which  now  have  circulat- 


50 

ing  libraries  have  applied  in  some  instances  and  intend  to 
apply  in  others  for  like  privileges.  The  establishment  of  a 
general  departmental  library,  open  also  to  the  public,  would 
save  the  Government  the  expensive  duplication  of  books  in 
numerous  small  collections,  and  would  also  economize  in  the 
room  space  devoted  to  departmental  library  purposes.  Ap- 
parently the  Government  and  the  clerks  would  profit  by  the 
project,  as  well  as  the  population  in  general  of  the  city. 

When  the  nucleus  of  a  library  properly  housed  is  once  ob- 
tained, the  collection  will  certainly  grow  rapidly  through 
private  donations  of  books  and  money,  and  when  it  has  dem- 
onstrated its  usefulness  and  the  fact  that  it  is  appreciated  by 
the  public  some  one  of  Washington's  wealthy  men  may  be 
moved  by  local  pride  or  other  good  motive  to  endow  it  and 
attach  to  it  his  name.  No  citizen  could  erect  to  himself  a 
nobler  memorial. 

WHERE   SHALL   THE   LIBKAKY   BE   HOUSED  ? 

It  is  evident  that  the  books  can  readily  be  obtained;  the 
difficulty  is  in  securing  a  habitation  for  the  library.  A  loca- 
tion in  the  new  City  Post-Office  has  been  warmly  urged.  In 
Senate  debate  it  has  been  stated  that  all  the  space  in  this 
building  will  be  needed  by  the  General  Government;  but, 
notwithstanding  this  announcement,  the  amount  of  available 
space  in  this  vast  structure  will  be  so  great,  its  location  is  so 
central,  and  there  is  such  fitness  in  housing  the  library  in  a 
Government  building  which  is  primarily  devoted,  in  name  at 
least,  to  local  uses,  that  your  committee  recommend  that  the 
first  effort  on  the  city's  part  be  to  obtain  this  location  for  its 
library. 

If  the  library  can  be  enabled  with  certainty  to  preserve  its 
distinct  existence  while  housed  under  the  same  roof  with  the 
great  national  library,  contingencies  might  arise  which  would 
render  a  location  in  some  unused  portion  of  the  new  building 
for  the  Library  of  Congress  extremely  desirable.  There  will 
be  abundant  room  in  that  structure  for  at  least  a  quarter  of 
a  century.  An  extensive  reading-room  and  every  library 
facility  will  be  available.  The  disadvantages  of  a  location 
not  sufficiently  central  may  be  overcome  by  the  establish- 
ment of  branches  in  different  parts  of  the  city,  like  those  of 
the  Boston  public  library. 

Then  the  advantages  of  space  in  the  proposed  new  munici- 
pal building,  or  in  a  structure  to  be  donated  by  some  public- 


51 

spirited  benefactor  yet  unknown,  have  been  considered.  Your 
committee  have  thought  the  wisest  course  to  be  to  make 
every  effort  at  first  to  obtain  a  location  in  a  building  already 
authorized  or  in  course  of  erection,  whose  construction  is  as- 
sured. A  municipal  building,  worthy  of  the  city,  when  it  is 
legislated  into  existence  and  actually  erected,  would  be  nat- 
urally the  permanent  home  of  a  city  library;  but  we  must  not 
wait  for  this  event  to  occur,  or  for  the  wealthy  benefactor 
aforesaid  to  appear  or  be  discovered.  Delays  in  securing  the 
suggested  nucleus  of  books  are  dangerous,  and  every  month 
of  the  people's  deprivation  of  needed  library  facilities  is  in- 
jurious. The  free  library  of  Washington  should  speedily 
come  into  being.  It  is,  therefore,  considered  wise  neither  to 
commit  the  Board  to  an  unchangeable  opinion  concerning 
the  library  site  nor  to  suggest  postponement  of  action  by 
seeking  quarters  at  this  time  in  some  prospective  building, 
whose  existence  is  as  yet  only  in  our  hopes. 

LEGISLATION     KECOMMEISTDED. 

Your  committee  ask  authority  to  urge  upon  Congress  leg- 
islation which  shall  create  a  library  of  the  kind  described  as 
necessary  in  this  report,  with  the  suggested  nucleus  of  books, 
and  in  that  location  which  shall  appear,  after  conference 
with  the  appropriate  committees  of  Congress,  to  be  most 
available.  Your  committee  submit  the  draft  of  a  bill  as  a 
suggestion  of  the  general  lines  of  the  proposed  legislation. 

If  only  a  small  fraction  of  the  books  in  Washington  can  be 
made  accessible  to  the  mass  of  its  people,  the  city  will  be 
well  supplied.  It  will  no  longer  starve  in  an  overflowing 
granary.  The  project  of  a  public  and  departmental  circulat- 
ing library  and  reading-room,  open  in  the  evening,  is  worthy 
of  the  strongest  and  most  enthusiastic  labors  in  its  behalf. 
It  will  doubtless  receive  the  hearty  support  of  the  Board  of 
Trade,  of  every  public-spirited  citizen,  and  of  all  friends  of 
the  Capital  and  its  people,  who  appreciate  the  fact  that  a  city 
of  a  quarter  million  of  inhabitants  contains  men  to  be  con- 
sidered and  not  merely  streets,  buildings,  trees,  statues  and 
monuments. 


The  campaign  for  a  tax-supported  library  on  the  lines  of 
the  foregoing  report  was  vigorously  pushed,  and  by  Act  of 
Congress,  approved  June  3, 1896,  the  library  was  established 
on  the  basis  desired. 

The  act  reads  as  follows: 


52 

"AN  ACT  To  establish  and  provide  for  the  maintenance  of  a 

free  public  library  and  reading  room  in  the  District  of 

Columbia. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  a 
free  public  library  and  reading  room  is  hereby  established 
and  shall  be  maintained  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  which 
shall  be  the  property  of  the  said  District  and  a  supplement 
of  the  public  educational  system  of  said  District.  All  actions 
relating  to  such  library,  or  for  the  recovery  of  any  penalties 
lawfully  established  in  relation  thereto,  shall  be  brought  in 
the  name  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  the  Commission- 
ers of  the  said  District  are  authorized  on  behalf  of  said  Dis- 
trict to  accept  and  take  title  to  all  gifts,  bequests  and  devises 
for  the  purpose  of  aiding  in  the  maintenance  or  endowment 
of  said  library;  and  the  Commissioners  of  said  District  are 
further  authorized  to  receive,  as  component  parts  of  said 
library,  collections  of  books  and  other  publications  that  may 
be  transferred  to  them. 

SEC.  2.  That  all  persons  who  are  permanent  or  temporary 
residents  of  the  District  of  Columbia  shall  be  entitled  to  the 
privileges  of  said  library,  including  the  use  of  the  books  con- 
tained therein,  as  a  lending  or  circulating  library,  subject  to 
such  rules  and  regulations  as  may  be  lawfully  established  in 
relation  thereto. 

SEC.  3.  That  the  said  library  shall  be  in  charge  of  a  Board 
of  Library  Trustees,  who  shall  purchase  the  books,  magazines 
and  newspapers,  and  procure  the  necessary  appendages  for 
such  library.  The  said  Board  of  Trustees  shall  be  composed 
of  nine  members,  each  of  whom  shall  be  a  taxpayer  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  and  shall  serve  without  compensation. 
They  shall  be  appointed  by  the  Commissioners  of  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  and  shall  hold  office  for  six  years:  Pro- 
vided, That  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  said  Board  the  mem- 
bers shall  be  divided  by  lot  into  three  classes.  The  first 
class,  composed  of  three  members,  shall  hold  office  for  two 
years;  the  second  class,  composed  of  three  members,  shall 
hold  office  for  four  years;  the  third  class,  composed  of  three 
members,  shall  hold  office  for  six  years.  Any  vacancy  oc- 
curring in  said  Board  shall  be  filled  by  the  District  Commis- 
sioners. Said  Board  shall  have  power  to  provide  such  regu- 
lations for  its  own  organization  and  government  as  it  may 
deem  necessary. 

SEC.  4.  That  the  said  Board  shall  have  power  to  provide 
for  the  proper  care  and  preservation  of  said  library,  to  pre- 


53 

scribe  rules  for  taking  and  returning  books,  to  fix,  assess, 
and  collect  fines  and  penalties  for  the  loss  of  or  injury  to 
books,  and  to  establish  all  other  needful  rules  and  regula- 
lions  for  the  management  of  the  library  as  the  said  Board 
shall  deem  proper.  The  said  Board  of  Trustees  shall  appoint 
a  librarian  to  have  the  care  and  superintendence  of  said  li- 
brary, who  shall  be  responsible  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  for 
i  he  impartial  enforcement  of  all  rules  and  regulations  law- 
fully established  in  relation  to  said  library.  The  said  libra- 
rian shall  appoint  such  assistants  as  the  Board  shall  deem 
necessary  to  the  proper  conduct  of  the  library.  The  said 
Hoard  of  Library  Trustees  shall  make  an  annual  report  to 
the  Commissioners  of  the  District  of  Columbia  relative  to 
i  he  management  of  the  said  library. 

Si:<  .  r>.  That  said  library  shall  be  located  in  some  conven- 
ient place  in  the  city  of  Washington,  to  be  designated  by  the 
Commissioners  of  the  District  of  Columbia  upon  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  Trustees  of  said  library:  Provided,  That  in 
any  municipal  building  to  be  hereafter  erected  in  said  Dis- 
ti-ici  suitable  provision  shall  be  made  for  said  library  and 
reading  room,  sufficient  to  accommodate  not  less  than  one 
hundred  thousand  volumes." 

This  act  carried  no  appropriation,  and  the  first  mainte- 
nance provision  for  the  library  appeared  in  the  act  making 
appropriations  for  the  District  of  Columbia,  approved  June 
30,  18!)8,  as  follows: 

Free  Public  Library. — For  librarian,  one  thousand  six  hun- 
dred dollars;  first  assistant  librarian,  nine  hundred  dollars; 
second  assistant  librarian,  seven  hundred  and  twenty  dol- 
lars; and  for  rent,  fuel,  light,  fitting  up  rooms,  and  other 
contingent  expenses,  three  thousand  five  hundred  dollars; 
in  all,  six  thousand  seven  hundred  and  twenty  dollars. 

In  pursuance  of  the  law  of  June  3,  1896,  the  Commission- 
ers appointed  the  Board  of  Trustees  therein  described,  and 
i he  nusiees  organized,  electing  Theodore  W.  Noyes  Presi- 
dent and  B.  H.  Warner  Vice-President,  first  passing  the  fol- 
lowing resolution: 

-Whereas  the  municipal  library  of  Washington  owes  the 
act  of  incorporation,  which  is  its  life,  to  the  unwearied  ef- 
forts, great  tact  and  good  judgment  of  Mr.  Theodore  W. 
Noyes;  therefore,  be  it 

"Resolved,  That  we  enter  on  the  first  page  of  our  records 
and  before  all  other  acts  this  acknowledgment  of  our  obliga- 
tions  to  Mr.  Noyes." 


54 

On  January  12,  1899,  in  response  to  the  suggestion  of  Mr. 
B.  H.  Warner,  Vice-President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees.  Mr. 
Andrew  Carnegie  offered  to  donate  $250,000  for  the  erection 
of  a  building  for  the  library,  if  Congress  would  provide  a  site 
and  suitable  maintenance. 

On  March  3, 1899,  Congress  passed  an  act  to  provide  a  site 
for  a  building  for  the  Washington  Public  Library,  as  follows : 

"Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representative*  of 
the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  au- 
thority is  hereby  conferred  upon  a  commission,  to  consist  of 
the  Commissioners  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  the  officer  in 
charge  of  public  buildings  and  grounds,  and  the  President  of 
the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Washington  Public  Library,  to 
cause  to  be  erected  upon  Mount  Vernon  Square,  in  the  city 
of  Washington,  in  the  Districf  of  Columbia,  a  building  for 
the  use  of  the  Washington  Public  Library,  with  funds  to  be 
contributed  by  Andrew  Carnegie:  Provided,  That  such 
building  shall  be  commenced  within  twelve  months  and  com- 
pleted within  three  years  from  the  passage  of  this  act:  Ami 
provided  further.  That  no  liability  shall  be  incurred  by  the 
rnited  States  or  the  District  of  Columbia  for  the  cost  of  the 
erection  of  said  building. 

SEC.  2.  That  said  commission  shall  invite  ten  architects  or 
firms  of  architects,  of  conspicuous  ability  and  experience,  to 
submit  competitive  designs  for  the  said  building,  upon  a 
carefully  drawn  programme,  said  competition  to  be  adjudged 
by  said  commission  acting  with  two  other  persons  to  be  se- 
lected by  the  competing  architects.  The  architect,  or  firm  of 
architects,  whose  design  shall  thus  be  adjudged  most  accept- 
able shall  be  employed  as  architect  of  the  building,  to  act 
under  the  direction  of  the  office  of  construction  hereinafter 
provided  for,  and  to  furnish  all  designs  and  drawings  re- 
quired for  the  construction  of  the  building  and  personal 
services  requisite  for  their  artistic  execution.  Said  archi- 
tect shall  receive  as  full  compensation  for  the  said  designs, 
drawings,  and  personal  services  the  sum  of  three  per  centum 
of  the  total  cost  of  said  building,  to  be  paid  from  time  to  time 
us  the  work  progresses;  and  all  designs  and  drawings  fur- 
nished by  him  for  the  said  building  shall  become  the  prop- 
erty of  the  District  of  Columbia. 

SKC.  :<.  That  the  construction  of  said  building  shall  be 
placed  in  charge  of  an  officer  of  the  Government  especially 
qualified  for  the  duty,  to  be  appointed  by  the  aforesaid  com- 
mission. wh<»  shall  receive  for  his  additional  services  an  in- 


crease  of  forty  per  centum  of  his  present  salary,  to  be  paid 
out  of  any  available  funds,  and  he  shall  disburse  the  funds 
under  rules  to  be  prescribed  by  the  said  commission,  make 
all  contracts,  and  employ  all  necessary  personal  serrices  not 
herein  otherwise  provided  for." 

Mr.  Carnegie  subsequently  increased  his  donation  to  |300,- 
000,  and  the  commission  created  by  the  foregoing  act  is  pro- 
ceeding with  the  arrangements  for  the  erection  of  the  build- 
ing. 


NOTES  OF  TRAVEL  IN  MEXICO, 
HAWAII,  AND  JAPAN. 

MEXICO'S  WONDERS. 


Extraordinary  Diversity  of  Sights  for  the  Curious— 
The  Kaleidoscope  of  Aztec  Land— An  American 
Combination  of  Spain  and  Egypt— Discomforts  and 
Charms. 

( Editorial  Correspondence  of  the  Evening  Star,  Dec.  7,  1895. ) 

When  the  curious  but  ease-loving  traveler  wishes  to  in- 
dulge in  polar  exploration  without  risk  of  freezing  or  starva- 
tion, of  eating  or  being  eaten  by  his  fellow-explorers,  of 
smashing  aluminum  boats  or  of  falling  from  a  pole-bound 
balloon,  he  follows,  in  a  comfortable  steamer,  the  warm,  ice- 
inelting  gulf  stream  to  the  North  Cape  of  Norway  and  to 
Spitzbergen.  When  the  same  traveler  wishes  to  penetrate 
the  tropics  without  exposing  himself  to  sunstroke,  to  fever, 
to  savage  cannibalistic  tribes,  to  dwarfs  shooting  poisoned 
missiles,  or  even  to  the  horrors  of  seasickness,  he  now  glides 
down  the  mountain  backbone  of  the  continent  in  a  railroad 
car  to  southern  Mexico,  far  into  the  torrid  zone,  at  an  alti- 
tude which  saves  him  from  equatorial  dangers  and  renders 
it  possible,  through  rapid  descents  in  short  excursions  to 
the  right  and  left,  to  taste,  with  impunity,  the  full  delights 
of  the  tropics. 

1  have  recently  enjoyed  a  rapid  tour  of  this  sort  in  Mex- 
ico, visiting  the  principal  cities  and  the  notable  sights  of 
the  great  central  plateau,  at  an  average  height  above  the 
level  of  the  sea  exceeding  that  of  the  summit  of  Mount 
Washington, — diverging  to  the  left  as  far  as  picturesque 
and  semi-tropical  Orizaba,  only  eighty  miles  from  the  Gulf 


(N 

of  Mexico,  with  iis  Swiss  mountains,  mountain  torrents  and 
picturesque  buildings,  and  its  .Javanese  entree,  palms  unl 
bananas, — diverging  to  the  right  as  far  as  attractive  and 
prosperous  Guadalajara  oft  the  Pacific  slope  of  Mexico,  with 
its  lake,  its  waterfall,  "the  Niagara  of  Mexico,"  and  its  canon 
that  boasts  the  temperate  zone  at  its  top  and  the  torrid  zone 
at  its  bottom;  and  pushing  southward  as  far  as  Oajaca  and 
tlie  famous  ruins  of  Mitla,  also  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Pacific, 
and  many  miles  nearer  to  the  equator  than  is  the  second 
cataract  of  the  Nile. 

WONDERFUL    DIVERSITY    OF    SK,  IITSKEING. 

The  principal  plateau  city  is  of  course  Mexico,  a  great 
modern  capital  of  nearly  400,000  population,  the  center  in 
succession  of  Aztec,  Spanish-American  and  Mexican  civili- 
zation, and  wonderfully  interesting,  both  from  what  it  is 
and  from  what  has  been  preserved  of  the  striking  evidences 
concerning  what  it  has  been.  But  there  are  on  the  plateau  a 
half-dozen  other  distinct  types  of  city,  as,  for  instance,  beau- 
tiful Puebla,  the  cathedral  city;  unique  Guanajuato,  a  typ- 
ical mining  town,  and  Aguas  Calientes,  the  Arkansas  Hot 
Springs  of  Mexico.  I  doubt  whether  anywhere  else  in  the 
world  so  short  a  distance  of  travel  can  display  a  more  strik- 
ing diversity  of  sightseeing.  There  are  exhibited  the  char- 
acteristic spectacles  of  the  torrid,  temperate  and  frigid 
zones;  here  the  tropical  jungle,  the  palm,  the  bamboo  and 
the  banana;  there  the  coffee,  or  the  maguey,  Indian  corn 
and  beans;  then  the  cactus  of  the  arid  wastes  of  the  Mexi- 
can desert,  and,  finally,  the  ice-plant  of  the  glaciers  of  Ori- 
xaba  or  Popocatepetl,  volcanoes  crowned  with  perpetual 
snow.  In  historic  associations  and  relics  of  the  past  there 
is  the  same  diversity.  There  are  reminders  of  Diaz,  of 
.Inarez  and  Maximilian,  of  General  Scott  and  Santa  Ana,  of 
Spanish  viceroys  and  Hidalgo,  of  Cortes  and  Montezuma, 
and  of  the  unknown  builders  of  pyramids  and  palaces,,  that 
antedate  the  beginnings  of  recorded  history  in  America. 
Among  the  men  of  the  Mexico  of  today  there  is  in  appear- 
ance and  customs  a  similar  diversity.  There  are  a  few 
hundred  men  of  vast  wealth  and  millions  of  paupers;  there 
are  feudal  lords  and  vassals,  and  there  are  types  represent- 
ing or  suggesting  the  proud  Spaniard  and  the  pliable 
Egyptian,  the  Ethiopian  and  the  Mongolian. 


58 

MOKE  FOREIGN  THAN  EUROPE. 

Mexico  is  more  foreign  in  appearance  than  nine-tenths  of 
Europe,  the  thoroughfares  of  which  are  well  trodden  by  the 
tourist  myriads,  and  which  has  few  by-ways  remaining  to 
gratify  curiosity  with  the  new  and  strange.  Mexico's  twelve 
millions  of  natives  are,  speaking  generally,  either  pure  In- 
dian, direct  and  unadulterated  descendants  of  the  Aztecs 
and  other  Indian  tribes,  or  mixed  Indian  and  Spanish,  or 
(much  the  smallest  class)  pure  Spanish.  Four-fifths  of  the 
people  have  some  Indian  blood,  two-fifths  are  pure  Indian, 
and  about  one-third  can  neither  speak  nor  understand  Span- 
ish, and  use  their  original  Indian  dialects.  In  the  outward 
appearance  of  the  men,  women  and  children  and  in  their 
habitations,  costumes  and  habits  it  suggests  in  its  different 
sections  and  among  its  varied  peoples  now  Europe  in  Moor- 
ish Spain,  now  Asia  in  Palestine,  now  Africa  in  Egypt. 

SPANISH    SUGGESTIONS    IX    MEXICO. 

The  large  cities  are  Spanish,  with  low,  flat-roofed  homes 
of  the  Moorish  type,  bare  and  forbidding  without,  but  built 
around  courts  often  rendered  attractive  by  fountains,  flow- 
ers, statuary  and  singing  birds.  Iron  gratings  at  the  bal- 
conies shut  out  the  lover  from  the  dark-eyed  Mexican  seuo- 
rita,  as  they  do  in  the  case  of  her  Spanish  sister,  and  both 
young  women  are,  unhappily,  discarding  the  picturesque 
mantilla  for  the  latest  Paris  fashion  and  spoiling  their  com- 
plexions with  Parisian  rouge. 

The  Mexican  horseman  is  even  more  dashing  and  pic- 
turesque than  his  Old  World  counterpart.  As  in  Spain,  the 
city's  heart  is  often  a  plaza,  a  promenade  park,  with  a  stand 
for  Sunday  band  music,  with  the  cathedral  facing  the  plaza 
on  one  side  and  the  palace  or  other  Government  building  on 
the  other.  In  both  countries  no  city  is  complete  without  a 
j  ascd,  the  Sunday  afternoon  driveway,  where  all  the  world 
displays  itself  in  its  best  bib  and  tucker,  and  a  bull  ring, 
where  also  on  Sunday  the  national  sport  attracts  the  multi- 
tude. Mexico's  churches,  like  Spain's,  are  notable  for  size 
and  beauty;  for  masterpieces  of  painting  and  treasures  of 
gold,  silver  and  precious  stones  within,  and  for  beggars 
at  their  doors.  Whim  the  Spanish  conquered  this  country 
its  surface  was  dotted  with  countless  Az/tec  temples.  The 
order  given  was  to  tear  down  every  one  of  these  structures 
and  to  erect  in  its  place  a  Christian  church. 


59 

Thus  it  results  that  there  are  churches  today  in  the  moel 
inaccessible  spots,  on  the  summits  even  of  the  pyramids,  tin- 
vast  artificial  mounds,  which  formed  the  favorite  founda 
tion  of  temples  of  Aztec  sun- worshipers;  and  thus  it  also  re- 
sults that  the  church  edifices  are  numerous  beyond  concep- 
tion, though  many  of  the  old  buildings  have  long  ago  l>« ••  -n 
disused  and  have  fallen  into  ruin.  The  City  ut  Mexico  has 
even  now  sixty  churches,  and  Puebla,  the  sacred  riiy.  with 
less  than  a  hundred  thousand  population,  has  quite  as  many. 
Not  only  are  these  religious  structures  notable  for  their 
number,  but  many  of  them  are  impressive  in  size  and  archi- 
tecture and  rich  in  adornment.  They  were  founded  by  Span- 
iards in  a  cathedral-building  age,  and  were  constructed  ac- 
cording to  the  plans  of  Spanish  architects,  at  a  time  when 
.Mexico  was  pouring  countless  millions  into  the  lap  of  Spain, 
and  when  there  was  no  deterrent  in  lack  of  money  tu  (In- 
most extravagant  building  projects.  When  church  property 
\\as  nationalized  by  Juarez,  and  monasteries  and  nunneries 
were  suppressed,  it  was  found  that  three-fourths  of  the  re- 
public's entire  property  was  in  the  hands  of  the  church. 
The  wealth,  and,  to  some  extent,  the  rich  adornment  of  the 
churches  were  affected  by  Juarez's  reform,  but  still  today 
-hese  structures  are,  as  in  Spain,  the  country  of  notable  ca- 
thedrals, the  sights  most  proudly  displayed  to  the  tourist. 

AMERICA'S   BIGGEST  CATHEDRAL. 

The  cathedral  of  the  City  of  Mexico  is  to  be  compared  in 
size  with  the  vast  cathedral  of  Seville,  and  that  of  I'm-lila 
in  beauty  of  interior  adornment  with  the  best  of  Spain.  Tin- 
only  church  in  the  world  that  unmistakably  and  notably  ex 
ceeds  in  size  the  Mexican  cathedral  is  St.  Peter's  at  Rome. 
The  Seville  cathedral  is  398  feet  by  291  feet,  and  the  nav«-  N 
134  feet  high.  Baedeker  gives  the  Mexican  cathedral's  di- 
mensions at  425  feet  by  200  feet;  height.  185  feet :  towers. 
218  feet  high.  The  Mexican  cathedral  is  thus  higher  and 
longer  than  that  of  Seville,  but  not  so  wide.  The  Seville 
structure  occupies  a  larger  ground  area,  but  a  part  of  that 
vast  building  has  fallen  in,  and  is  practically  a  ruin,  in  the 
hands  of  repairing  workmen,  who  will  be  engaged  upon  ir 
for  years  and  perhaps  centuries.  Meanwhile  this  portion  of 
the  cathedral  is  inaccessible  and  spoils  the  effect  of  an  in- 
lerior  view  of  the  structure.  According  to  Baedeker's  fig- 
ures, the  Mexican  cathedral  ranks  in  size  in  the  class  of 
Seville  and  Milan,  surpassed  only  by  St.  Peter's,  and  sur 


60 

passing  not  only  all  the  other  Spanish  cathedrals,  but  every 
other  in  the  world,  including  St.  Paul's,  London;  St.  Sophia, 
Constantinople,  and  the  Cathedral  of  Cologne.  The  Mex- 
ican cathedral,  which  was  nearly  a  hundred  years  in  build- 
ing, is  also  notable  as  having  once  boasted  the  richest  altar 
in  the  world,  and  as  being  now  unique  in  possessing  a  choir 
railing  said  to  have  cost  a  million  and  a  half  dollars,  and  a 
wooden  floor  which  certainly  did  not  cost  as  many  cents. 

The  Puebla  cathedral,  with  its  floor  of  colored  marbles, 
its  rich  and  artistically  attractive  high  altar  of  different  va- 
rieties of  Puebla  onyx,  and  the  beautiful  ironwork  and  wood 
carving  about  the  choir,  boasts  an  interior  which  equals 
that  of  the  cathedral  of  Toledo,  or  Burgos,  or  Leon,  or  any 
other  of  the  structures  of  which  Spain  is  justly  proud.  The 
music  at  Puebla  was  also  pleasing.  An  organ,  a  piano,  a 
violoncello  and  other  stringed  instruments,  and  men's  and 
boys'  voices  (choir  in  vestments  and  director  with  baton), 
combined  with  excellent  results.  These  boy  choirs  in  scarlet 
and  white  vestments  were  also  found  in  Oajaca's  and  Tla- 
colulu's  cathedrals  in  the  far  south.  There  is  a  magnificent 
display  of  silver  in  remote  Tlacolula's  church:  Tlaxcala  has 
the  oldest  church  in  North  America,  with  its  cedar  beams 
brought  from  Spain,  Cortes'  church  of  San  Francisco,  con- 
structed in  1521;  there  is  artistic  wood  carving  by  Indian 
artists  of  power  and  taste  in  the  Church  of  Ocotlan,  perched 
upon  a  hill  in  the  same  city  of  Tlaxcala,  and  almost  every 
leading  church  of  almost  every  considerable  town  has  a 
treasure  of  some  sort,  a  Murillo,  an  alleged  Titian,  or  some 
other  exhibit  to  interest  the  sightseer. 

COUNTERPARTS    OF    SPANISH    CITIES. 

Not  only  have  many  individual  Spanish  sights  their  coun- 
terparts in  Mexico,  but  even  the  cities  may  be  grouped  and 
compared.  The  City  of  Mexico  is  nearly  as  large  as  Madrid 
or  Barcelona,  and  far  surpasses  both  in  novelty  and  interest. 
Outside  of  its  wronderful  picture  gallery — the  finest  in  the 
world — Madrid  is  only  an  imitation  Paris.  Barcelona  is  a 
bright,  attractive  modern  business  city.  Mexicot  is  all  of 
this,  and  in  addition  interests  with  Oriental  scenes  and  sug- 
gestions. It  has  many  of  the  sightseeing  attractions  of 
Madrid,  Barcelona  and  gay  Seville,  with  touches  of  scenes 
from  the  streets  of  Cairo.  Guadalajara  and  Puebla  are 
nearer  the  size  of  Seville,  and  each  has  manifold  attractions. 
<  Guanajuato  is  the  Mexican  reminder  of  Toledo  and  Granada, 


61 

perched  on  the  rocky  hillsides,  terraced,  quaint  and  pic- 
turesque. 

You  hear  the  same  language  spoken  as  in  Spain ;  you  pay 
separately  so  much  for  each  act  at  a  theatrical  performance 
in  both  countries;  the  male  citizens  (and  some  of  the  citi- 
zenesses)  smoke  constantly  and  everywhere,  as  in  Spain,  but 
the  Mexican  does  not  stare  quite  so  hard  at  the  ladies  as  the 
Spaniard  does,  nor  does  he  make  such  ostentatious  and  juicy 
use  of  a  toothpick  between  courses  at  table  d'hote. 

In  some  of  the  Mexican  homes  there  are  reminders  in 
architectural  effects  and  in  stucco  work  in  horseshoe  arches 
and  graceful  columns  of  the  Moorish  influence  upon  the 
Spaniards  during  the  period  of  Moorish  occupation  of  Spain, 
but  Mexico  has  nothing  to  compare  with  the  delicately  beau- 
tiful relics  left  by  the  Moors  in  the  Alhambra  at  Granada, 
and  in  the  Alcazar  at  Seville,  which,  with  the  wonderful 
Moorish  mosque  at  Cordova,  constitute  the  chief  attractions 
of  Southern  Spain.  If,  however,  Mexico  has  not  relics  of  the 
work  of  North  Africa,  it  has  in  its  Indian  dark-skinned  peo- 
ple reminders  of  the  Africans  and  Asiatics  themselves.  In 
the  small  villages  and  country  sections  where  the  millions 
of  Indians  dwell,  Oriental  scenes  are  plentiful.  I  do  not 
now  refer  to  observed  analogies  in  traditions  and  religious 
rites,  in  chronological  systems  and  zodiacal  signs,  or  in  so- 
cial usages  and  manners  upon  which  the  argument  for  be- 
lief in  the  common  origin  of  early  Mexican  and  Old  World 
civilization  is  based,  but  to  the  surface  resemblances  which 
impress  themselves  upon  and  interest  the  ordinary  unscien- 
tific observer. 

HINTS    OF   THE    ORIENT   IN    MEXICO. 

The  dark-skinned  men,  with  bright  eyes  and  white  teeth, 
dressed  first  in  white  cotton  and  then  draped  in  a  scrape, 
a  shawl  by  day  and  a  blanket  by  night,  are  distinctively 
Oriental,  and  the  effect  is  not  destroyed  either  by  the  im- 
mense sugar-loaf  sombreros  which  they  wear  upon  their 
heads  or  the  sandals  which,  when  not  barefooted,  they  fasten 
apon  their  feet. 

The  women,  often  in  gay  colors,  and  draped  in  a  dark-col- 
ored shawl,  called  reboso,  which  half  conceals  the  face,  also 
suggest  Asia  or  Africa  rather  than  America  or  Europe.  The 
Egyptian  shaduf  finds  its  counterpart  in  the  well  sweep  of 
Irapuato,  where  strawberries  are  grown  and  sold  every  day 
in  the  year,  and  where  irrigation  is  resorted  to  as  in  Egypt, 


62 

svstrmaiically  and  on  a  large  scale.  In  the  absence  of  trees 
and  rocks  the  Egyptian  shaduf  is  small,  is  composed  of  pre- 
pared timbers,  and  the  counterpoise  to  the  well  bucket  is  an 
immense  hunk  of  dried,  hardened  Nile  mud.  The  Mexican 
shaduf  generally  utilizes  a  forked  tree,  and  swings  across 
it  a  long  tapering  tree  trunk  or  branch,  and  the  counter- 
poise consists  of  a  large  single  stone  or  a  mass  of  stones 
fastened  together.  Though  Mexico  stretches  farther  south 
than  Egypt,  the  two  countries  lie,  speaking  generally,  be- 
tween the  same  parallels  of  latitude,  but  the  altitude  of 
Irapuato  is  over  5,000  feet  above  the  sea  level  or  the  level 
of  the  Nile,  so  that  the  same  degree  of  undress  is  not  ex- 
pected or  found  in  the  Mexican  as  in  the  Egyptian  shaduf 
worker.  I  saw,  however,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Irapuato 
two  Indians  .at  well  sweeps  working  side  by  side,  who  were 
dressed  only  in  white  cotton  loin  cloths,  and  who  looked 
like  the  twin  brothers  of  shaduf  workers  whom  I  have  seen 
and  photographed  on  the  Nile.  In  the  tropical  altitudes  of 
Mexico,  and  in  the  hot  springs  sections,  as  at  Aguas  Ca- 
lientes,  without  regard  to  altitude,  there  is  at  least  an 
Egyptian  disregard  of  the  conventionalities  in  attire,  and  a 
disposition  is  noted  to  take  a  daily  fashion  hint  from  the 
Garden  of  Eden  instead  of  from  Paris,  the  children  discard- 
ing even  the  fig  leaf.  The  water-carrier  of  Cairo  is  much 
like  his  brother  of  Guanajuato,  where  a  long  leathern  jar 
is  used.  The  groups  about  the  fountains  all  over  the  re- 
public, with  jars  of  rounded  pottery  borne  on  the  woman's 
head  on  a  protecting  turban-like  ring,  or  balanced  on  the 
man's  shoulders,  are  also  Oriental.  Corn  is  ground  between 
two  stones  in  Asiatic  fashion. 

THE   EGYPT   OF   THE   1STEW    AYORLD. 

Egyptian  sand  spouts  are  common;  also  Egyptian  types 
of  domestic  utensils  of  pottery.  The  Mexican  woman,  with 
her  baby  at  her  back,  securely  fastened  in  the  reboso,  which 
throws  the  infant's  weight  on  the  mother's  shoulders,  is  to 
be  compared  with  the  Egyptian  woman,  whose  "reboso" 
covers  her  face  while  the  child  straddles  her  shoulders, 
holding  to  her  head,  and  leaving  her  hands  as  unfettered  as 
in  the  Mexican  fashion.  There  are  no  Egyptian  camels,  but 
even  more  numerous  donkeys,  the  patient  burros.  The  In- 
dian villages,  whether  of  adobe  or  of  bamboo,  with  thatched 
roofs  and  organ  cactus  fences,  and  whether  alive  with  goats, 
donkeys  or  snarling  curs,  are  African  in  effect.  There  are 


63 

Aztec  picture  writings  resembling  the  Egyptian,  the  paper 
being  made  from  the  maguey  instead  of  papyrus.  The 
Aztecs  employed  captives  on  great  public  works,  as  in  Egypt. 
Mexico  thus  has  pyramids  much  broader  based  than  those 
of  K^ypt,  though  not  nearly  so  high,  and  idols  quite  as  ugly. 
Gold  ornaments,  beads,  masks  and  other  highly-prized  an- 
tiquities are  found  in  the  tombs  as  in  Egypt. 

WHEREIN    MEXICO   FALLS   SHORT. 

There  are  disadvantages  and  annoyances  on  the  Mexican 
trip.  After  crossing  the  Rio  Grande  an  arid  desert  w;isti- 
annoys  the  traveler  with  heat  and  dust  for  many  miles.  The 
railroad  trip  to  the  City  of  Mexico  is,  however,  not  so  far  as 
io  San  Francisco,  four  days  and  nineteen  hours  from  New 
York,  and  is  quite  as  comfortable.  As  in  southern  Europe, 
the  houses  and  people  are,  speaking  generally,  unprepared 
for  the  cold,  and  in  case  of  a  cold  wave  both  visitors  and  na- 
tives often  suffer.  The  hotels  are,  with  a  few  exceptions, 
poor,  but  they  are  very  much  better  than  the  reports  con- 
cerning them  prevalent  in  the  United  States  lead  one  to 
expect.  One  can  fare  as  well  as  in  Spain.  The  foreign  lan- 
guage is  an  annoyance  to  the  American  who  has  done  little 
European  travel.  But  Americans  ought  to  learn  Spanish. 
Next  to  English  it  is  the  language  of  the  Americas,  and  in 
view  of  present  growing  commercial  relations  and  manifest 
destiny  Spanish  should  have  the  preference  over  every 
other  modern  language  in  our  public  schools  and  colleges. 
The  worst  nuisances  that  the  tourist  encounters  in  Mexico 
will  also  remind  him  of  southern  Europe  and  the  Mediter- 
ranean countries  in  general  in  the  ubiquity  and  the  excessive 
energy  of  the  insect  kingdom.  There  is  not  the  slightest 
trace  of  the  proverbial  Mexican  procrastination  in  the  opera- 
tions of  the  bedbugs,  fleas  and  lice.  Whatever  they  have  to 
do,  they  do  promptly  and  with  all  their  might.  The  bulk 
of  the  Mexicans  need  public  schools  and  soap  and  water; 
varied  industries  and  insect  powder.  But  today  I  am  con- 
sidering them  not  in  the  more  serious  phases  of  their  condi- 
tions and  needs,  but  exclusively  from  the  sightseeing  point 
of  view,  which  discovers  picturesqueness  in  rags  and  dirt. 

MEXICAN    "BIGGEST   THINGS    ON   EARTH." 

Mexico  boasts  the  richest  and  most  productive  silver 
mines  in  the  world;  the  cradle  of  civilization  in  this  conti- 


64 

nent;  the  ruins  and  romance  of  historic  and  prehistoric 
America;  the  Garden  of  Eden,  if  it  was  situated  on  this 
continent,  and  in  the  Cholula  pyramid  the  Tower  of  Babel 
of  Indian  tradition;  the  spot  where  the  first  known  Europ- 
ean set  foot  on  this  continent  to  which  he  gave  his  name — 
the  place,  the  coast  near  Tampico;  the  man,  Americus  Ves- 
pucci; the  largest  meteorite  in  the  world;  in  the  statue  of 
<  'liarles  IV.,  on  the  Paseo,  in  the  City  of  Mexico,  the  first  and 
according  to  some  authorities  the  largest  bronze  ever  cast 
in  America,  and  according  to  Humboldt  the  finest  eques- 
trian statue  in  the  world  next  to  that  of  Marcus  Aurelius 
at  Rome;  the  stoutest  tree  on  the  continent  and  perhaps  in 
:lic  \vorld  at  Tule,  154  feet  two  inches  in  circumference,  six 
feet  from  the  ground;  according  to  the  latest  figures,  which 
reduce  Mount  St.  Elias  and  exalt  Orizaba,  the  highest  moun- 
tain on  the  continent;  the  largest  American  church  build- 
ing in  the  Mexican  Cathedral  and  the  most  beautiful  in  that 
of  Puebla;  the  first  pulpit  and  first  church  structure  in  the 
New  World  at  Tlaxcala;  the  largest  bell  in  America  and 
one  of  the  largest  in  the  world  in  the  Mexican  Cathedral. 
It  is  said  to  be  nineteen  feet  high.  The  "Monarch  of  Bells" 
in  the  Kremlim  at  Moscow  is  twyenty  feet  high  and  wreighs 
444,000  pounds,  but  it  is  cracked  and  useless,  while  Mex- 
ico's bell  is  sound  and  serviceable.  Finally,  Mexico  boasts 
the  most  pretentious  theater  on  the  continent.  That  of 
Guadalajara  is  an  immense  structure,  with  an  imposing 
front  of  numerous  columns  of  the  Greek  style  of  architec- 
ture, but  it  is  now  excelled  by  that  of  Guanajuato,  which 
is  one  of  the  showiest  and  most  elaborate  buildings  of  the 
kind  in  the  world.  It  is  the  sight  of  Guanajuato.  It  is  un- 
der Government  control,  and  official  permit  to  visit  it  is 
issued  by  the  Governor  of  the  State.  It  has  been  a  dozen 
years  in  building,  at  great  expense,  as  if  it  were  a  European 
cathedral  or  an  American  State  capitol  or  the  Washington 
postoffice. 

They  do  not  hurry  things  in  Mexico.  It  is  the  land  of 
"manana" — tomorrow.  The  national  coat  of  arms  repre- 
sents an  eagle  standing  on  a  cactus,  with  a  serpent  in  its 
mouth.  It  is  popularly  known  as  the  bird  and  the  worm, 
and  it  has  been  hastily  inferred  therefrom  that  the  national 
motto  reads:  "It  is  the  early  bird  that  catches  the  worm." 
But  only  a  few  days  of  Mexican  experience  demonstrate 
the  fallacy  of  this  interpretation,  and  suggest  that  the  real 
national  motto  is  either  "More  haste,  less  speed,"  "Some 
•lay,  some  day,"  or  "In  the  sweet  bye  and  bye." 


AZTEC  AND  SPANIARD. 


In  the  Footsteps  of  the  Conquering  Cortes— Vestiges 
of  America's  Venice— Unique  and  Interesting  Street 
Scenes  in  Mexican  Cities— Bargain  Sales  Every  Day. 

( Editorial  Correspondence  of  the  Evening  Star,  Dec.  14,  1895. ) 

The  American  in  Spain  naturally  takes  a  deep  interest  in 
the  reminders  of  Columbus.  He  finds  not  even  the  Alham- 
bra  more  thought-inspiring  than  the  bridge  of  Finos  near 
Granada,  win-re  Queen  Isabella's  courier,  sent  by  her  from 
the  recently  conquered  Moorish  city,  overtook  Columbus, 
who  was  abput  to  quit  Spain  in  despair,  and  turned  him 
back  to  give  "to  Castile  and  Leon  a  new  world."  The  Amer- 
ican also  develops  a  spontaneous  Columbian  enthusiasm  in 
Palos,  with  its  convent  of  La  Rabida,  so  intimately  asso- 
ciated with  the  turning  point  in  the  career  of  Columbus, 
and  its  port,  whence  the  great  discoverer  sailed;  and  in  Bar- 
celona, from  which  the  most  imposing  of  the  many  monu- 
ments erected  in  his  honor  looks  out  upon  the  Mediterra- 
nean, where  he  was  royally  welcomed  by  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
bella on  the  return  from  his  first  voyage. 

A  similar  interest  attaches  to  Mexican  reminders  of 
Cortes,  the  first  Old  World  conqueror  of  the  New,  and  this 
interest  is  not  diminished  by  the  fact  that  the  associations 
connected  with  Cortes,  who  took  possession  for  Spain  of 
what  Columbus  found,  are  in  the  land  where  his  fame  was 
won,  and  not  in  the  mother  country,  where  both  discoverer 
and  conqueror  died  neglected  and  humiliated. 

IN  THE  FOOTSTEPS  OF  CORTES. 

\\ V  can  trace  every  stage  of  the  wonderful  march  of 
Cortes  and  his  handful  of  followers  from  the  coast  near 
Vei-a  Crux,  to  the  City  of  Mexico.  Here,  at  Tlaxcala,  a  moun- 
tain town,  not  far  from  the  present  city  of  Ptiebla,  the  Span- 
iards fought  with  a  fierce  and  warlike  mountain  tribe  which 
soon  became  the  faithful  ally  of  Cortes,  saving  him  more 
than  once  in  times  of  imminent  danger,  and  sharing  the 
military  honors  of  the  conquest.  In  this  city,  which  at  the 


time  of  the  conquest  was  compared  favorably  by  Cortes 
with  Granada,  but  which  is  now  the  mere  shadow  of  its 
former  self — a  half-deserted,  decaying  village — are  found 
the  most  interesting  collection  of  Cortes'  relics  in  all  Mex- 
ico. One  sees  here  the  banner  which  accompanied  Cortes 
in  his  memorable  march,  the  standard  which  Cortes  pre- 
sented to  the  Tlaxcalan  chiefs  who  befriended  him,  portraits 
in  oil  of  the  latter,  the  robes  which  they  wore  at  their  bap- 
tism and  the  font  in  which  they  were  baptized,  a  silken 
embroidery  on  which  is  pictured  the  first  battle  between 
the  Spaniards  and  Tlaxcalans;  and  one  can  visit  the  palace 
occupied  by  Cortes. 

After  turning  aside  with  some  of  the  Spaniards  to  ascend 
Popocatepetl  for  sulphur  to  be  used  in  gunpowder,  we  enter 
the  valley  of  Mexico  by  way  of  Amecameca,  as  Cortes  did, 
and  gaze  with  him  in  astonished  and  speechless  admiration 
upon  the  magnificent  prospect  spread  before  us. 

"In  the  center  of  the  great  basin  were  beheld  the  lakes, 
occupying  then  a  much  larger  portion  of  the  surface  than 
at  present;  their  borders  thickly  studded  with  towns  and 
hamlets,  and,  in  the  midst — like  some  Indian  empress  with 
her  coronal  of  pearls — the  fair  City  of  Mexico,  with  her 
white  towers  and  pyramidal  temples,  reposing  as  it  were  on 
the  bosom  of  the  waters." 

We  descend  in  Cortes'  footsteps,  and,  after  a  brief  halt 
at  Ixtapalapa,  where,  in  the  palace  of  Cuitlahua,  Montezu- 
ma's  brother,  the  Spaniards  were  royally  entertained,  we 
follow  Cortes  upon  the  great  causeway  across  Lake  Tezcuco 
straight  into  the  City  of  Mexico. 

HISTORIC    POINTS   IN   THE   AZTEC    CAPITAL. 

Where  the  Hospital  of  Jesus  now  stands  Montezuma 
welcomed  the  Spaniards,  and  thence  they  marched  to  their 
quarters  near  the  present  Plaza  Major  and  cathedral.  We 
can  rebuild  in  imagination  the  vast  pile  of  Montezuma's 
palace,  on  the  site  of  the  present  national  palace,  and  the 
suburban  castle  of  Chapultepec,  which  rose  high  above  all 
other  structures,  displaying  upon  the  heights  which  it 
crowned  the  same  venerable  cypresses  which  are  admired 
there  today.  We  can  imagine  the  audacious  capture  of  Mon- 
tezuma in  his  own  city  and  castle,  and  finally  after  many 
vicissitudes  of  fortune  the  attempt  of  the  Spaniards  to  es- 
cape from  the  city  on  Noche  Triste,  the  sorrowful  night,  by 
way  of  the  western  causeway.  We  can  recreate  the  terrible 


«7 

struggle  along  the  dike,  aided  by  structures  which  mark 
historic  points  of  this  exodus.  The  movable  bridge,  built  by 
the  Spaniards  as  a  substitute  for  draw-bridges,  destroyed 
by  the  Aztecs,  stuck  fast  in  the  first  intersecting  canal  of 
the  causeway,  and  the  second  canal  could  be  crossed  only 
upon  a  bridge  of  dead  bodies.  At  this  point  now  stands  the 
ancient  church  of  San  Hipolito,  upon  whose  wall  is  carved 
this  inscription:  "So  great  was  the  slaughter  of  Spaniards 
l>y  i  he  Aztecs  in  this  place  on  the  night  of  July  1,  1520, — 
named  for  this  reason  the  Dismal  Night, — that  after  having 
in  the  following  year  re-entered  the  city  triumphantly,  the 
conquerors  resolved  to  build  here  a  chapel  to  be  called  the 
Chapel  of  the  Martyrs,  and  which  should  be  dedicated  to 
San  Hipolito,  because  the  capture  of  the  city  occurred  upon 
that  saint's  day."  The  point  in  the  causeway  is  also  indi- 
cated where  Alvarado  is  said  to  have  made  his  famous  leap 
across  a  bridgeless  canal,  using  his  spear  as  a  pole,  and 
breaking  all  the  records  for  pole-vaulting.  Farther  out,  at 
Fopotla,  is  the  Noche  Triste  tree,  under  which  Cortes  is  said 
to  have  wept  on  the  Dismal  Night,  a  tree  jealously  guarded 
by  the  Government.  The  only  notable  Spanish  public  me- 
morials preserved  in  Indian-ruled  Mexico  thus  commem- 
morate  a  famous  slaughter  of  the  Spaniards  and  the  spot 
where  the  Spanish  leader  shed  tears  of  mortification  and 
grief. 

Having  seen  Cortes  ignominiously  chased  out  of  Mexico 
we  must  imagine  him  recuperating  at  Tlaxcala,  collecting 
and  disciplining  a  new  army,  building  brigantines  to  serve 
as  his  navy  on  Lake  Tezcuco,  and  finally  engaging  in  a  fierce 
struggle  with  the  soldiers  of  Guatemozin,  the  new  Aztec 
emperor,  a  heroic  figure  in  the  war,  and  cutting  his  way 
over  the  Iztapalapan  causeway,  back  to  his  old  quarters  near 
the  pyramidal  Aztec  temple,  and  to  the  mastery  of  the  city. 

The  story  of  the  conquest  of  Mexico  is  the  most  exciting 
romance  ever  written.  It  has  not  been  neglected  either  by 
the  historian  or  the  novelist.  As  the  average  tourist  in 
Egypt  finds  an  entertaining  guide  in  "Uarda"  and  "The 
Egyptian  Princess,"  and  the  visitor  to  Italy's  resurrected 
city  delights  more  in  the  descriptions  found  in  "The  Last 
Days  of  Pompeii"  than  in  those  of  Baedeker,  so  in  Mexico 
"The  Fair  God"  and  "Montezuma's  Daughter"  give  to  many 
buildings  and  historic  spots  still  visible  and  to  many  views 
which  may  still  be  enjoyed  a  vivid  interest  which  they  would 
otherwise  lack.  It  is  a  fascinating  occupation  to  visit  the 
scenes  described  in  fiction  and  history,  and  to  trace  remind- 
ers of  an  ancient  city  in  the  modern  successor  upon  its  site. 


68 
THE   OLD    CAPITAL   AND   THE   NEW. 

The  Aztec  city  of  Mexico — Tenochtitlan — was  more  ex- 
tensive and  populous  than  the  present  great  capital.  It  was 
the  Venice  of  the  New  World.  It  was  built  originally  on 
some  islands  in  the  western  part  of  Lake  Tezcuco.  It 
stretched  its  habitations  on  piles  out  into  the  shallow  lake. 
Canals  traversed  it  in  every  direction.  Canoes  as  the  New 
World  gondolas  were  the  ordinary  Tenochtitlan  vehicles. 
Great  causeways  of  liine  and  stone,  broad  enough  for  a 
dozen  horsemen  to  ride  abreast,  connected  the  city  on  the 
south,  the  west  and  the  north  with  the  mainland.  Canals 
intersected  these  causeways  and  were  crossed  by  draw- 
bridges which  could  be  raised  in  case  of  danger,  thus  cut- 
ting off  all  communication  with  the  inland  city.  Tenochtit- 
lan resembled  in  location  and  means  of  defense  the  ancient 
lake  dwellings  of  Europe.  It  made  a  Chinese  or  Cantonese 
use  of  the  surface  of  the  water  to  sustain  human  habita- 
tions, not  merely  in  houses  on  piles,  or  in  house  boats,  but 
in  the  famous  chinampas  or  floating  islands,  which  were 
for  the  most  part  immense  rafts  of  reeds  and  rushes,  bearing 
several  feet  of  a  rich  soil  from  the  bottom  of  the  lake.  Some 
of  these  artificial  movable  islands  were  two  or  three  hundred 
feet  long,  sustaining  the  residence  hut  of  a  gardener  who 
grew  flowers  and  vegetables  in  the  greatest  profusion. 

Modern  Mexico  is  no  longer  a  Venice.  The  waters  of 
Lake  Tezcuco  have  withdrawn  until  the  center  of  the  pres- 
ent city  is  several  miles  from  its  shore.  Only  a  few  feeble 
reminders  remain  to  suggest  its  Venetian  days,  its  cause- 
ways, its  canals  and  its  floating  islands. 

• 

VESTIGES    OF   THE   AZTEC    VENICE. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  Mexico's  suburban  excur- 
sions is  to  the  south  to  Ixtapalapa  and  along  the  Viga  canal, 
including  Santa  Anita  and  its  alleged  chinampas.  The 
great  causeway  to  Ixtopalapa  was  that  by  which  Cortes 
i  wire  entered  the  city  across  the  waters  of  Tezcuco,  the 
first  time  hailed  with  demonstrations  of  welcome  by  myriads 
«'f  Aztecs,  the  second  the  occasion  of  Tenochtitlan's  final 
conquest,  greeted  by  the  fiercest  and  most  desperate  resist- 
ance. 

The  modern  trip  to  Txtapalapa  begins  prosaically  in  a 
little  street  car  pulled  by  a  single  mule.  We  enter  this  car 
at  Mexico's  great  plaza  in  full  view  of  the  vast  cathedral, 


69 

which  takes  the  place  of  the  pyramid  and  surmounting 
temple  of  the  Aztec  war  god.  \Ve  leave  the  I  Ma /.a  Major 
and  go  southward  down  the  main  street  of  Tenochtitlan, 
which,  when  Cortes  first  entered  it,  was  lined  on  both  sides 
with  beautiful  palaces  of  red  stone,  belonging  to  the  A/t< •»• 
nobility,  and  exciting  by  their  magnificence  astonishment 
and  unbounded  admiration  in  the  Spaniards.  But  in  the 
second  entrance — that  of  the  conquest — every  one  of  these 
fortified  palaces  was  leveled  to  the  ground.  Near  the  city's 
limits  our  street  car  turns  to  the  left  and  we  are  soon  paral- 
leling the  Viga  canal,  the  last  notable  vestige  of  Tenochtit- 
lan's  waterways.  After  a  long  but  interesting  ride  along 
its  banks,  over  a  fine,  well  shaded  road,  passing  through 
the  Indian  villages  of  Santa  Anita  and  Ixtacalco,  we  turn 
sharply  to  the  left  at  Mexicalcingo,  and  are  soon  in  Ixta- 
palapa.  Here  were  the  famous  gardens  of  Cuitlahua,  Mon- 
tezuiua's  brother,  where  he  feasted  the  visiting  Spaniards. 
Here  also  was  the  home  of  Guatemozin,  the  last  great  Aztec 
emperor.  Now  gardens  and  palaces  have  disappeared,  and 
only  a  miserable,  dusty,  scantily  populated  village  remains. 

FLOATING   ISLANDS    AND    THE    VIGA. 

On  the  return  trip  to  Mexico  we  left  our  street  car  at 
Santa  Anita  and  took  a  scow  ride  in  among  the  chinampas — 
all  that  remains  of  the  floating  islands.  If  any  of  these 
islands  ever  did  float  it  is  evident  that  they  are  now  fastened 
immovably.  Workmen  were  engaged  in  raising  rich  soil  by 
dredging  the  bottoms  of  the  intersecting  canals  and  in 
spreading  it  over  the  "floating  islands,"  which  thus  as- 
sumed an  artificial  appearance  and  might  easily  be  sup- 
posed, on  superficial  examination,  to  rest  upon  rafts.  The 
soil  of  these  artificial  gardens  is  very  fertile  and  grows  im- 
mense crops  of  vegetables  and  flowers,  which  form  part  of 
the  lading  of  the  Viga  flat  boats  that  supply  the  Mexican 
markets. 

Returning  to  the  canal  we  embark  in  a  Mexican  gondola 
for  a  trip  down  the  Viga  to  Mexico.  Our  gondola  is  not 
even  an  Aztec  canoe,  but  unequivocally  and  flagrantly  a  flat 
boat,  constructed  on  the  graceful  lines  of  the  mud  scow. 
We  sit  under  a  low  awning,  which  protects  us  from  the  sun, 
and  our  barefooted  gondolier,  dressed  in  white  cotton  and  a 
sombrero,  poles  us  slowly  down  the  equally  sluggish  canal. 
Here  we  see  a  picturesque,  scantily  clad,  dark-skinned  In- 


70 

dian  propelling  a  small  boat  laden  with  fagots.  We  pass 
hundreds  of  flat  boats  on  their  way  to  market,  piled  high 
with  vegetables,  flowers,  wood,  hay,  fruit  and  stone.  Some 
of  the  scows  are  house-boats,  ami  whole  families,  from  the 
infant  to  the  grandfather,  live  in  them.  Domestic  opera- 
tions are  performed  in  the  open  air,  with  a  Neapolitan 
abandon  and  lack  of  reserve.  Here  we  pass  under  a  low 
stone  bridge,  and  are  compelled  to  throw  ourselves  flat  in 
our  boat,  with  our  awning  spread  upon  us.  The  scenes  on 
the  populated  banks  of  the  canal  are  as  interesting  as  those 
on  its  surface.  We  see  women  and  children  in  various 
stages  of  undress  washing  their  clothes  or  performing  their 
personal  ablutions.  The  Viga  laundry  consists  of  an  equip- 
ment of  stones  conveniently  located  on  the  river  bank.  Oc- 
casionally we  can  look  up  some  small  intersecting  canal  and 
see  gardening  operations  upon  the  modern  floating  islands 
and  small  boats  filled  with  natives  navigating  the  ditches 
around  them. 

Decidedly,  there  is  now  no  suggestion  of  Venice  in  the 
scene.  If  several  thousand  windmills  and  as  many  fat  cows 
were  scattered  over  the  flat  landscape  the  canals  might, 
however,  enable  the  scene  to  recall  recollections  of  Holland. 

OTHEK   OLD    WOKLD    SUGGESTIONS. 

Though  Mexico  no  longer  reposes  as  an  island  capital  on 
the  bosom  of  the  waters  and  present  resemblances  to  Italy's 
beautiful  city  of  palaces  and  canals  are  remote  and  far- 
fetched, there  are  many  obvious  suggestions  of  the  Old 
World  in  Mexican  scenes,  a  few  of  which  may  be  noted. 

An  Old  World  superfluity  of  beggars,  for  instance,  is  con- 
spicuously in  evidence. 

The  Mexican  beggars  are  not  to  be  compared  in  deform- 
ity with  those  of  Constantinople,  or  in  persistency  with 
those  of  Killarney,  but  they  maintain  a  fair  European  ave- 
rage in  both  respects  and  suffice  to  cause  the  American  vis- 
itor who  has  been  "so  long  abroad"  to  feel  perfectly  at 
home  in  Mexico.  Cortes,  distinguishing  Cholula  from  other 
Aztec  cities,  wrote  that  he  saw  there  "multitudes  of  beg- 
gars such  as  are  to  be  found  in  the  enlightened  capitals  of 
Europe."  Since  the  conquest  all  the  other  Mexican  cities 
seem  to  have  attained  Cholula's  distinction  and  now  proudly 
display  these  evidences  of  European  enlightenment. 


71 

.Ml1  MM  IKS    AM)    TIIK    I. IKK. 

In  several  different  places,  including  Guanajuato,  Mexico 
has  a  display  of  comparatively  modern  mummies  and  of  cat- 
acombs. The  practice  prevails — as  in  Barcelona  and  some 
other  European  communities. — of  renting  tomb  space  for  the 
use  of  a  corpse.  In  Mexico,  if,  at  the  expiration  of  the  orig- 
inal term  there  is  no  renewal  of  the  lease,  the  corpse  is 
evicted  and  dumped  into  an  extensive  underground  dum- 
ber. If  in  the  dry  air  the  evicted  mummifies  he  stands 
against  the  wall;  if  he  tumbles  to  pieces  his  bones  join  the 
vast  miscellaneous  heap.  The  Guanajuato  catacomb  is 
ghastly  enough  to  satisfy  the  most  exacting  connoisseur  of 
the  gruesome. 

UNIQUE   STREET   SCENES. 

Then  there  are  street  scenes  of  a  strange  and  foreign  as- 
pect to  the  American,  as,  for  instance,  black  street  car 
hearses  and  street  car  funeral  hacks,  utilized  in  the  burial 
of  the  most  distinguished  men,  like  the  late  Romero  Rubio, 
Diaz's  father-in-law,  and  at  his  death  a  Cabinet  officer  in 
the  present  administration.  There  are  also  curious  street 
signs,  rude  but  vigorous  and  highly  colored  pictures  depict- 
ing scenes  suggestive  of  the  business  conducted  within,  and 
inappropriate  names  in  staring  letters  as  trade-marks,  so 
to  speak,  of  the  different  stores.  Imagine,  for  instance, 
"The  Last  Days  of  Pompeii"  as  a  business  sign,  or  "The 
Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus,"  which  is  the  name  of  a  score  of  es- 
tablishments, ranging  from  a  saloon  to  a  flour  mill.  Then 
one  enjoys  in  the  streets  the  spectacle  of  men  embracing, 
each  patting  the  other's  back  with  the  hand  of  the  embrac- 
ing arm,  the  whole  performance  constituting  the  national 
form  of  greeting,  as  handshaking  is  with  us.  The  delicate 
patting  of  this  salute  has  no  justification  on  utilitarian 
grounds.  If,  instead  of  patting,  the  Mexicans  were  to 
scratch  one  another's  backs,  in  the  self-inaccessible  spot  be- 
tween the  shoulderblades,  one  could  understand  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  performance  and  with  good  reason  commend  it. 

Countless  porters  at  the  railroad  stations  ready  to  carry 
anything  from  a  hand  satchel  to  a  Saratoga  trunk  for  the 
smallest  of  small  fees  suggest  Europe;  also  the  vendors 
who  crowd  about  the  windows  of  the  cars  at  every  stopping 
point  to  sell  their  wares.  The  variety  of  the  articles  thus 
offered  is  extraordinary.  In  addition  to  the  edibles  and 


72 

drinkables,  the  pulque  and  the  strange  fruits,  nearly  every 
place  has  some  specialty  to  offer.  Thus  at  Salamanca  the 
peddlers  have  buckskin  gloves,  at  Aguas  Calientes  linen 
drawn  work  of  a  fineness  and  cheapness  to  turn  the  heads 
of  lady  tourists,  at  Irapuato  strawberries  every  day  in  the 
year,  at  Queretaro  opals  by  the  peck,  at  Celaya  famous 
dulces,  confections  of  milk  and  sugar;  at  Guadalajara  pot- 
tery, at  Puebla  onyx  ornaments,  and  at  Apizaco  canes  of 
coffee  wood  curiously  and  sometimes  artistically  carved  by 
the  Indians. 

BARGAIN    SALES   EVERY   DAY. 

These  things  can  not  only  be  bought  at  the  places  where 
the}'  are  made  or  grown  or  found,  but  at  the  metropolis,  and 
there  also  can  be  had  cheaply  old  silver,  filigree  work,  beau- 
tiful straw  work,  wood  carving,  feather  work  keeping  alive 
some  of  the  ancient  Aztec  art,  figures  in  wax  and  clay,  and 
countless  other  Mexican  products,  in  addition  to  direct  im- 
portations from  Europe  which  have  paid  little  or  no  duty, 
and  American  goods,  which  to  meet  the  vigorous  European 
competition  are  in  many  lines  sold  more  cheaply  than  in  the 
United  States.  When  it  is. considered  that  the  depreciation 
of  the  Mexican  silver  causes  every  transaction  to  appear  to 
the  American  as  a  bargain  sale,  with  a  discount  of  nearly 
50  per  cent.,  the  attractions  of  Mexico  as  a  shopping  place 
at  once  become  notably  apparent. 

What  lady  can.  resist  the  opportunity  for  foreign  cheap 
shopping,  when  she  remembers  that  she  may  also  experience 
the  unholy  joy  (a  returning  European  traveler's  emotion)  of 
smuggling  her  purchases  across  the  border  and  of  getting 
ahead  of  the  customs  officers  and  of  Uncle  Sam? 

While  the  ladies  are  shopping  the  men  can,  if  they  please, 
<-linib  Orizaba  or  Popocatepetl — snow-clad  volcanoes,  2,000 
feet  higher  than  Mount  Blanc.  It  is  not  necessary,  how- 
ever, to  rule  out  the  ladies  in  the  mountain-climbing  trips. 
1  see  that  a  part}r  of  men  and  women  have  recently  ascended 
Popocatepetl,  and  that  they  went  from  the  City  of  Mexico 
as  far  as  the  first  stage  of  the  ascent — wonderful  to  relate — 
on  bicycles.  As  further  evidence  that  Mexico  is  in  many 
respects  fully  abreast  of  the  times  attention  may  be  called 
to  the  recent  newspaper  announcement  of  a  projected  cable 
road  to  the  very  top  of  lofty  Popocatepetl. 


MODERN  MEXICO. 


The  New  North  American  Invasion  Across  the  Rio 
Grande  — One  of  the  World's  Great  Men  —  Porfirio 
Diaz,  Spanish  -  Indian  President  and  Uncrowned 
King— Future  of  the  Americas. 

(Editorial  Correspondence  of  the  Evening  Star,  Jan.  4,  1896.) 

The  Americans,  i.  e.,  the  United  Statesers,  are  invading 
Mexico.  This  invasion  differs  from  its  predecessor  of  half  a 
century  ago  in  that  it  is  peaceful  and  beneficial  in  the  high 
est  degree  to  the  invaded.  American  enterprise  and  the  far- 
seeing  wisdom  of  Mexico's  political  leaders  have  combined 
to  develop  a  comprehensive  railroad  system  in  our  neighbor- 
ing republic,  practically  an  extension  of  certain  great  trunk 
lines  of  the  United  States,  already  covering  well  the  most 
important  points  and  pushing  toward  the  country's  re- 
motest corners.  Mexico's  contribution  to  the  pan-American 
route,  which  is  to  convey  through  passengers  from  Maine 
or  Oregon  to  Patagonia,  and  which  is  to  knit  together  the 
Three  Americas,  is  now  near  the  Mexican  southern  border. 
The  railroads  with  which  the  northern  invaders  have  blessed 
this  land  are  developing  the  rich  natural  resources  of  hith- 
erto inaccessible  sections,  stimulating  trade,  and  bringing 
into  the  republic  an  annually  increasing  host  of  tourists  to 
enjoy  the  magnificent  scenery,  the  prehistoric  ruins  and  the 
unique  scenes  illustrating  the  life  of  the  people,  and  also 
with  ideas  of  expenditure  on  a  gold  basis  to  scatter  depre- 
ciated silver  among  appreciative  recipients.  With  its  twin 
agent  of  civilization,  the  telegraph,  the  railroad  has  also  ren- 
dered revolutions  all  but  impossible.  No  revolt  can  make 
much  headway  before  the  news  is  flashed  to  Diaz,  and 
through  the  aid  of  the  facilities  furnished  by  the  railroads 
troops  may  be  massed  and  the  rebellion  crushed  in  its  inrip 
iency.  Mexico's  railroads,  with  a  single  exception,  arc 
owned  and  run  by  Americans,  in  accordance  with  American 
methods  of  equipment  and  management.  The  army  of  rail- 
road men  constitute  the  first  and  most  important  branch  of 
the  northern  invaders,  and  associated  with  them  are  the 


drummers,  representing  business  America,  and  the  tourist 
host.  Then  come  the  Americans  who,  either  for  themselves 
or  as  superintendents  for  Mexican  owners,  have  so  wonder- 
fully developed  the  republic's  mineral  resources  in  recent 
years.  The  coffee  lands  have  also  attracted  numerous  Amer- 
ican investors,  some  of  whom  have  done  well  for  themselves 
and  all  of  whom  have  contributed  something  to  the  pros- 
perity of  Mexico. 

THE    UBIQUITOUS    AMERICAN. 

Everywhere  in  the  younger  republic  one  meets  Ameri- 
cans, here  in  trade,  here  in  the  hotel  business,  here  as  tour- 
ists, here  introducing  some  northern  invention,  as  an  elec- 
tric plant,  into  a  progressive  Mexican  city;  here  in  mining, 
here  in  coffee  planting,  here  in  charge  of  railroad,  express 
or  telegraph  business.  But  compared  with  the  entire  popu- 
lation they  are,  of  course,  a  mere  handful.  Their  influence 
in  Mexico  is  out  of  proportion  to  their  number,  for  the  rea- 
son that  they  have  so  strong  a  hold  upon  the  sources  of  na- 
tional development  and  prosperity.  They  are  not  more 
numerous,  because  Mexico  is  not  really  attractive  to  those 
colonists  who  must  struggle  individually  with  the  soil,  the 
class  which  constitutes  the  great  bulk  of  home-seeking  and 
home-making  immigrants.  On  the  plateau  the  soil  is  often 
thin  and  poor;  in  the  hot  lands  fevers  and  the  competition 
of  Indian  cheap  labor  at  a  maximum  rate  of  25  cents  a  day 
in  our  money  discourage  immigration.  There  is  mo-re  room 
here  for  the  capitalist  than  for  the  laborer.  It  is  not  a  good 
place  for  the  young  man  to  come  "to  make  his  fortune," 
without  well-defined  and  reasonable  plans  of  immediate 
employment.  Intoxicants  are  temptingly  cheap  and  the 
moral  atmosphere  is  unwholesome  for  the  voluntary  or  in- 
voluntary loafer. 

Mexico  has  not  merely  railroad  ties  with  the  United 
States,  but  is  bound  fast  by  newspaper  ties  as  well.  The 
capital  city  has  two  good  daily  newspapers  printed  in  Eng- 
lish, one  of  which,  the  Mexican  Herald,  an  enterprising, 
newsy,  up-to-date  paper,  presents  to  its  readers  the  full  As- 
sociated Press  reports.  The  republic  is  thus  in  the  system 
of  American  newspapers  as  well  as  that  of  American  rail- 
roads, and,  no  longer  isolated,  is  in  touch  with  the  thought 
and  action  of  the  North  American  Continent. 


rr, 

THE    ItEIGN    OF    LAW    AND    OF    DIAX. 

There  was  a  time  wheii  heavy  iii vestments  of  American 
capital  in  Mexico  would  have  been  viewed  as  impossibilities, 
rendered  such  by  local  hostility  toward  foreigners,  and  es- 
pecially Americans,  and  by  the  lack  of  a  settled,  organized 
government  to  repress  lawlessness  and  to  guarantee  semriiy 
to  invested  capital.  That  stage  in  the  country's  history  is 
happily  passed.  Diaz,  one  of  the  world's  great  men,  rules 
the  republic  with  a  strong,  yet  tactful  hand.  He  is  at  once 
a  soldier  and  diplomatist.  He  welcomes  the  foreigner  with- 
out losing  his  hold  upon  his  countrymen.  He  has  checked 
the  revolutionary  tendencies  of  Mexico,  formerly  a  sort  of 
Ferris  wheel  among  nations,  notable  for  the  magnificent 
impressiveness  of  its  periodical  revolutions.  The  army  is 
liark  of  him,  and  through  the  railroad  and  accompanying 
telegraph  which  his  policy  has  sent  everywhere  in  Mexico 
he  can,  as  I  have  already  suggested,  drop  soldiers  upon  the 
backs  of  conspirators  as  soon  as  they  have  fairly  begun  to 
conspire.  He  has,  to  a  great  extent,  broken  up  the  elements 
which  threaten  revolt,  conciliating  or  crushing  possible 
conspirators.  Many  restless,  lawless  spirits,  including  the 
surviving  remnant  of  bandits,  have  been  converted  into 
"Rurales,"  the  efficient  mounted  protectors  of  the  public 
peace.  Other  disturbers  have  been  quieted  and  rendered 
conservative  by  appointment  to  higher  offices,  or  have  been 
exiled,  or  imprisoned,  and,  in  some  cases,  perhaps,  shot 
''while  attempting  to  escape."  In  one  way  and  another  Diaz, 
who  was  an  old  revolutionist  himself,  and  who  approached 
his  task  of  rendering  revolutions  impossible  with  the  ac- 
quired knowledge  of  an  expert,  has  long  ago  steadied  the 
republic  and  caused  his  reign,  if  such  it  must  be  termed, 
to  be  an  era  of  peace  and  good  order  and  security  to  life 
and  property. 

While  in  the  City  of  Mexico  I  had  an  interview  with  Pres- 
ident Diaz  in  the  National  Palace,  the  vast  building  which 
occupies  a  part  of  the  site  of  the  still  vaster  structure  of 
Montezuma's  world-famous  palace.  My  sponsor  and  inter- 
preter was  Mr.  Butler,  the  able  and  genial  secretary  of  the 
American  legation  in  Mexico.  The  stranger  from  Wash- 
ington is  at  once  made  to  feel  at  home  here  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  his  Government.  Minister  Ransom,  the  courtly 
ex-Senator  from  North  Carolina,  and  his  son  Robert  vie 
with  each  other  in  their  tender  of  hospitable  attentions,  and 
no  one  could  be  apparently  on  a  better  footing  at  the  Mex- 


76 

lean  White  House,  or  secure  for  a  visitor  an  interview  with 
President  Diaz  under  more  favorable  conditions.  The  Mex- 
ican President  understands  much  that  is  said  in  English 
and  can  speak  it  to  some  extent,  but  he  protects  the  Presi- 
dential dignity  in  these  interviews  (as  is  natural)  by  speak- 
ing only  Spanish,  and,  when  necessary,  utilizing  an  inter- 
preter. In  conversation  with  him,  however,  there  is  not  the 
unavoidable  stiffness  of  the  ordinary  interview  through  an 
interpreter.  You  speak  to  him  and  not  to  the  interpreter, 
for  you  feel  that  he  understands  nearly  everything  that  you 
say,  and  that  so  far,  at  least,  as  your  own  remarks  are  con- 
cerned, your  Spanish-speaking  friend  is  a  commentator 
rather  than  an  interpreter. 

AN   INTERVIEW   WITH    PRESIDENT   DIAZ. 

\\V  found  the  President  in  a  reception  room  hung  with 
the  famous  Maximilian  tapestries,  and  he  sat  down  and 
chatted  sociably  with  us  for  half  an  hour,  apparently  obliv- 
ious or  careless  of  the  fact  that  a  crowd,  including  a  high 
Government  official,  cooled  their  heels  in  the  ante-chamber. 

The  interview  was  not  a  formal,  pre-arranged  affair  to 
furnish  the  basis  of  a  newspaper  publication,  but  the  Presi- 
dent talked  interestingly  on  many  subjects  in  the  course  of 
the  desultory  conversation. 

He  evidently  appreciates  fully  the  value  of  the  right  sort 
of  American  in  developing  the  material  resources  of  the 
country  which  he  governs.  The  man  who  builds  and  man- 
ages Mexican  railroads  and  the  man  who  develops  the  re- 
public's mineral  wealth  are  to  him  the  model  Americans. 
In  this  connection  he  spoke  in  warm  terms  of  ex-Governor 
Alexander  R.  Shepherd,  who  has  spent  great  sums  of  money 
in  making  highly  profitable  the  mines  of  Batopilas  in  north- 
ern Mexico.  President  Diaz  inquired  particularly  as  to  Mr. 
Shepherd's  whereabouts  (he  was  then  in  Europe),  and  said 
that  he  had  at  least  two  American  friends  in  whom  he  could 
place  at  all  times  the  fullest  and  most  unquestioning  reli- 
ance. One  of  them,  he  said,  was  Shepherd,  and  the  other 
Huntington,  the  railroad  magnate. 

Admiration  was  expressed  of  the  wonderful  view  from 
the  residence  White  House  of  Mexico,  lofty  Chapultepec, 
and  of  the  Paseo  or  driveway  leading  to  it,  with  its  mag- 
nificent statues  of  Guatemozin,  Columbus  and  Charles  IV. 
Diaz  did  not  display  any  special  enthusiasm  on  the  subject 
of  natural  scenery.  He  intimated  that  so  far  as  these  par- 


77 

lirular  scenes  were  concerned,  they  were  so  familiar  to  him 
that  he  had  come  to  take  them  much  as  a  matter  of  course. 

In  response  to  a  complimentary  reference  to  the  good 
order  prevailing  today  in  Mexico,  Diaz  spoke  freely  upon 
the  subject.  He  was  evidently  pleased  and  proud  at  what 
he  had  already  accomplished  in  this  direction,  but  in  view 
of  the  comparatively  recent  date  of  the  full  supremacy  of 
the  law  he  deprecated  an  expectation  of  precisely  the  sa un- 
settled conditions  everywhere  in  that  republic  which  he 
assumed  to  exist  everywhere  in  the  United  States. 

Questioning  as  to  the  possibility  of  a  visit  by  him  to  the- 
United  States,  I  asked  whether  he  was  prohibited  from  go- 
ing outside  of  the  republic's  jurisdiction  during  his  trim 
of  office.  He  replied  that  the  rule  on  that  subject  had  been 
even  more  stringent  than  at  present;  that  when  he  first  be- 
came President  the  law  made  of  that  official  a  prisoner 
within  the  federal  district,  forbidden  to  step  foot  outside 
its  limits;  and  that  he  finally  succeeded  in  securing  the 
amendment  of  this  law,  so  that  now  he  can  visit  any  part  of 
Mexico,  though  he  may  not  go  beyond  its  borders.  He 
added  dryly  that  the  Mexican  Presidents  were  not  inclined 
at  any  time  to  view  this  confinement,  so  to  speak,  as  a  pun- 
ishment, and  intimated  that  anyone  in  the  past  who  was 
so  fortunate  as  to  hold  the  Presidency  was  apt  to  prefer  to 
stay  close  to  the  seat  of  Government  in  order  to  be  sure  of 
retaining  it. 

CHARACTERISTICS    OF   THE    PRESIDENT. 

I  Ma/,  is  an  older  man,  a  smaller  man  physically,  though 
strongly  built,  and  a  much  darker  man  than  photographs 
and  paintings  of  him  had  caused  me  to  expect  to  meet.  He 
is  sixty-five  years  of  age,  though  he  looks  considerably 
younger,  and  the  Indian  blood  in  his  veins,  of  which  he  is 
proud,  imparts  a  decided  shade  to  his  complexion.  He  gives 
the  impression  of  a  man  of  great  force,  but  with  powers 
under  perfect  restraint.  He  seems  what  he  is  generally  con- 
ceded to  be,  "The  right  man  in  the  right  place."  He  has 
been  the  power  either  on  the  throne  or  behind  the  throne 
since  1877,  and  he  will  reign,  all  elements  of  the  people  en- 
thusiastically assenting,  as  long  as  he  lives.  It  is  also  ex- 
pected that  he  will  exercise  the  kingly  prerogative  of  select- 
ing his  successor;  indeed,  the  name  of  the  man  supposed 
to  have  been  chosen  for  this  honor  is  already  whispered  in 
the  inner  circles. 


78 

Diaz  is  of  the  mixed  Spanish  and  Indian  race  which  con- 
trols Mexico.  The  oppressions  by  the  mother  country  ap- 
parently soured  the  Spanish  blood  in  Mexican  veins.  De- 
scendants of  the  Spanish  conquerors  fought  by  the  side  of 
descendants  of  the  conquered  Aztecs  against  Spain  as  a 
common  enemy.  Irrespective  of  ancestry  they  merged  into 
the  Mexican-American.  It  is  curious  how  the  see-saw  of 
time  and  fate  has  sent  the  murdered  Guatemozin  up  and  the 
conquering  Cortes  down  in  Aztec-Spanish  land.  Guatemo- 
zin's  bones  have  moldered  undiscovered  somewhere  in  the 
vast  forests  of  Central  America,  where  Cortes  hanged  him, 
or  they  would  occupy  the  place  of  honor  in  Mexico's  Pan- 
theon. The  most  impressive  statue  in  the  Mexican  capital 
is  the  magnificent  representation  of  Guatemozin  on  the 
Paseo,  reverenced  by  the  Indians,  and  erected  and  admired 
by  men  with  the  blood  of  the  Spanish  conquerors  in  their 
veins.  The  companion  piece  to  Guatemozin's  statue  on  the 
Paseo  is  not  Cortes,  the  conqueror,  but  Columbus,  the  dis- 
coverer, who  is  apropriately  honored  in  this  part  of  the  New 
Worlft.  As  for  Cortes,  not  only  is  he  uncommemorated  in 
tablet  or  monument,  but  rancorous  hatred  did  not  even  per- 
mit his  bones  to  rest  undisturbed  in  their  Mexican  tomb. 
"In  1823,"  says  Prescott,  "the  patriot  mob  of  the  capital  in 
their  zeal  to  commemorate  the  era  of  the  national  independ- 
ence and  their  detestation  of  the  'old  Spaniards,'  prepared 
to  break  open  the  tomb  which  held  the  ashes  of  Cortes  and 
to  scatter  them  to  the  winds!  Friends  of  the  family,  as  is 
commonly  reported,  entered  the  vault  by  night,  and,  secretly 
removing  the  relics,  prevented  the  commission  of  the  sacri- 
lege." 

A    WELCOME   TO    HOSPITABLE   GEAVES. 

This  treatment  of  Cortes  is  a  curious  exception  to  the 
general  amnesty  and  the  policy  of  toleration  which  Mexico 
seems  to  have  declared  in  respect  to  the  dead  who  in  life 
figured  conspicuously  in  her  history.  She  has  apparently 
been  content  to  welcome  even  the  most  hated  to  a  hospitable 
grave.  Under  the  Altar  of  the  Kings  in  the  Cathedral  of 
Mexico  molder  together  the  bones  of  certain  Spanish  vice- 
roys, and  the  heads  of  certain  patriot  Mexicans,  including 
Hidalgo,  struck  off  by  the  Spanish  as  the  heads  of  traitors. 
Close  at  hand  in  the  Chapel  of  San  Felipe  lie  the  remains 
of  Iturbide,  who  destroyed  Spanish  rule  in  Mexico,  made 
himself  emperor,  was  finally  shot  by  the  patriot  Mexicans 


70 

;is  a  traitor,  and,  being  dead,  reposes  in  tin-  cathedral  under 
a  monument  inscribed  "The  Liberator." 

In  Mexico's  Westminster,  the  Pantheon  of  San  Fernando, 
lies  .Juarez,  the  famous  Indian  President,  under  a  tomb 
which  is  a  masterpiece  of  sculpture,  and  only  a  few  feet 
away  are  the  monuments  which  mark  the  last  resting  places 
of  .Hiramon  and  Mejia,  the  generals  of  Maximilian,  who 
were  executed  with  him  at  Juarez's  order.  At  the  foot  of 
( 'hapultepec  rises  a  monument  to  the  Mexican  cadets  killed 
in  the  assault  by  the  North  American  invaders.  In  the  for- 
eign cemetery  at  its  end  toward  Chapultepec  lie  the  bones 
of  the  American  soldiers  killed  in  the  invasion,  and  on  their 
monumental  shaft  is  inscribed  their  victories:  "Contreras, 
(  Imrubusco,  Molino  del  Eey,  Chapultepec,  Mexico."  No  one, 
it  seems,  is  begrudged  a  hospitable  grave  but  Cortes! 

In  this  land  of  revolutions  first  one  race  has  been  on  top 
and  then  another.  For  three  hundred  years  the  Spanish 
blood  was  in  the  ascendancy;  now  the  Indian  prevails.  The 
Mexican  Madonna  is  the  Indian  Virgin  of  Guadalupe,  who, 
inspiring  the  patriot  armies,  overthrew  and  superseded  as 
the  national  patron  saint,  the  Spanish  Virgin,  de  Los  Reme- 
dies, in  whose  name  the  Spaniards  went  to  battle.  It  is  the 
Virgin  pictured  as  an  Indian  who  was  recently  crowned  at 
Guadalupe,  some  of  our  American  bishops  participating  in 
the  elaborate  ceremonies.  Juarez,  "the  Washington  of  Mex- 
ico," was  a  full-blooded  Zapotec,  and  he  ruled,  and  Diaz 
now  rules,  asserting  the  supremacy  of  the  Indian  through 
their  Zapotec  blood. 

IS    MEXICO'S    AUTONOMY    IN    DANGER? 

Has  Mexico  reason  to  fear  the  invading  Americans,  even 
though  they  bear  gifts?  Not  at  present,  and  probably  never. 
Asa  race  we  are  a  land-hungry  people,  but  a  belt  of  desert 
and  forbidding  territory  separates  us  from  the  desirable 
portions  of  Mexico.  Our  colonists  do  not  go  there  as  settlers 
upon  the  land  in  dangerously  large  numbers.  Not  labor,  but 
capital,  is  needed,  and  supplied. 

The  United  States  must  and  will  control  the  successful 
competitor  among  the  canal  and  railroad  routes  to  connect 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  across  the  narrow  end  of  the  continent, 
but  this  control  does  not  render  necessary  annexation  either 
of  Mexico  or  of  the  country  traversed  by  the  interoceanic 
highway. 


80 

Millions  of  the  Mexicans  are  not  in  condition  to  be  assim- 
ilated in  a  real  republic  like  the  United  States.  The  Gov- 
ernment, though  admirable  and  the  one  best  adapted  to  ex- 
isting circumstances,  is  not  of  and  by  the  people.  The  elec- 
tions have  often  been  mere  forms.  The  national  legislature, 
of  which  the  lower  house  meets  in  the  old  Iturbide  Theater, 
with  the  reporters  in  a  private  box  and  the  spectators  in  the 
galleries,  passes  entirely  too  many  measures  by  a  unanimous 
vote.  Four  million  people,  who  speak  and  understand  only 
some  Indian  dialect,  and  whose  needs  are  so  barbarously 
limited  that  twenty  cents  a  day  of  our  money  will  satisfy 
them,  would  be  an  indigestible  lump  even  for  the  ostrich 
stomach  of  the  American  Republic.  In  many  parts  of  the 
rural  districts  the  conditions  of  the  feudal  system  prevail. 
The  Mexican  hacienda  is  a  vast  estate,  sometimes  contain- 
ing hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres,  with  its  castle,  the  fort- 
like  central  building  or  house,  around  which  the  feudal 
village  clusters,  with  its  lord,  generally  an  absentee,  enjoy- 
ing himself  in  Paris,  and  with  its  vassals  in  thousands  of 
peons,  who  are  kept  chronically  in  debt  to  the  lord,  and  who, 
under  the  laws  and  customs,  are  as  tightly  bound  to  the  soil 
as  if  slavery  and  serfdom  had  not  been  abolished  by  law  in 
Mexico.  From  the  feudal  system  of  the  Middle  Ages  to 
modern  self-government  is  too  sudden  a  transition. 

Neither  the  people  to  the  north  nor  to  the  south  of  us  are 
now  knocking  at  our  doors  for  admission,  and  there  is  no 
tendency  toward  or  present  prospect  of  forcible  annexation. 
Canada,  outside  of  the  French  province,  would  be  readily 
assimilated,  and  is  anxious  for  commercial  but  not  political 
union.  Mexico  would  not  be  easily  absorbed.  Many  of  her 
people,  especially  those  near  the  border,  are  suspicious  and 
apprehensive  of  us.  Secretary  Seward,  who  drove  out  the 
French  for  them,  does  not  entirely  banish  from  their  mem- 
ory General  Scott,  with  his  army  of  North  American  in- 
vaders. The  process  of  Americanizing  both  neighbors  goes 
on,  however,  steadily.  Canada  is  likely  to  secure  first  com- 
mercial and  then  political  independence  of  Great  Britain 
before  there  can  be  peaceable  annexation  to  the  United 
States,  if  that  event  is  ever  to  occur.  With  Canada  and  Mex- 
ico self-governed  as  republics,  and  closely  bound  to  the 
United  States  by  commercial  ties  and  common  interests, 
and  with  the  institutions  and  influence  of  the  great  Republic 
dominating  the  American  continent,  manifest  destiny  will 
sufficient  gratification,  no  matter  how  long  the  repre- 


81 

sentation  of  Canada  and  Mexico  in  the  government  at  Wash- 
ington may  be  delayed. 

With  a  pan-American  railroad  fastening  together  the 
American  continents  with  bands  of  steel;  with  reciprocity 
devices  to  foster  and  encourage  trade;  with  legislation  to 
develop  American  shipping  and  American  commerce;  with 
consular  reports  and  such  publications  as  those  of  the 
Bureau  of  American  Republics  to  guide  the  manufacturers 
wise  enough  to  utilize  them,  and  with  an  enlarged  and  vig- 
orous American  doctrine,  the  modern  application  and  logical 
development  of  the  Monroe  doctrine,  to  unify  the  hem- 
isphere, the  three  Americas  will  advance  rapidly  together, 
shoulder  to  shoulder,  into  a  common  and  unexampled  pros- 
peri  ty. 


A  KING  AMONG  TREES. 


Mexico's  Giant  at  Tule  Perhaps  the  Stoutest  in  the 
World  —  A  Typical  Zapotec  Village  —  Scenes  in  a 
Timbuctoo  of  the  North  American  Continent  — On 
the  Way  to  Mitla's  Ruins. 

(Editorial  Correspondence  of  the  Evening  Star,  Jan.  18,  1896.) 

Though  spelled  Oaxaca  and  pronounced  Warhacker,  the 
word  sounded  tunefully  as  Eldorado  in  the  ears  of  Cortes, 
for  it  was  the  name  of  the  most  fruitful  valley  and  the 
richest  gold-producing  province  in  Aztec  land.  And  when 
the  Spaniard  kidnaped  Montezuma  in  his  own  palace,  and 
ruled  through  the  royal  captive,  one  of  the  first  gifts  ex- 
torted from  him  was  the  grant  to  Cortes  of  a  vast  tract  of 
land  in  Oaxaca.  So  after  the  conquest,  when  a  Spanish 
emperor  occupied  Montezuma's  shoes,  this  grant  was  re- 
newed and  confirmed,  and  Cortes  was  made  Marquis  of  the 
Vallej7  of  Oaxaca.  The  modern  Indian-peopled  city  of  this 
name  is  famous  not  only  as  the  spot  favored  by  Cortes,  but 
as  the  birthplace  of  Juarez  and  of  Diaz,  as  the  present  ter- 
minus of  the  Mexican  Southern  Railroad,  and  the  most 
southern  point  yet  reached  in  Mexico  by  the  Pan-Ameri- 
can route,  and  finally  as  the  starting  point  for  a  drive  to 
the  Big  Tree  of  Tule  and  the  ruins  of  Mitla. 

In  front  of  the  worse  of  the  two  Oaxaca  hotels — any  one 
who  has  been  in  either  of  them  will  at  once  decide  that  I 
stayed  where  he  did — there  stood  on  a  balmy  day  in  last 
November  two  vehicles  bound  for  the  ruins  of  Mitla.  In 
entire  harmony  with  their  uses  and  their  destination  they 
were  themselves  ruins,  as  unmistakable  as  any  left  by  the 
Aztecs,  Toltecs  or  Zapotecs.  First  came  a  dilapidated  car- 
riage, once  perhaps  the  showy  turnout  of  a  Spanish  viceroy, 
now  a  sad  relic  of  departed  worth,  broken,  scratched, 
cracked,  tattered  and  torn,  worn  paintless  and  threadbare, 
whose  doors,  held  in  place  by  dirty  bits  of  string,  clung 
tenaciously  when  requested  to  open,  and  in  yielding  gener- 
ally splintered  the  wood  work  in  a  fresh  spot.  The  second 
vehicle  was  even  less  promising.  It  was  a  double-seated 


wagon  with  springless  springs,  and  in  the  last  stages  of 
decay.  Each  conveyance  had  as  motive  power  five  mules, 
with  three  leaders  abreast,  and  was  driven  by  a  bandit  in 
sombrero  and  serape. 

THE    START    FOR   TULE   AND    MITLA. 

The  little  group  at  the  hotel  entrance,  consisting  of  Dr. 
Leopoldo  Batres,  conservator  of  ancient  monuments  of  Mex- 
ico; his  son.  a  bright  youngster;  the  English  engineer; 
Madame  and  myself,  stared  at  the  Mitla  procession  with 
dubious  eyes.  Finally  Madame,  after  a  critical  examina- 
tion and  some  hesitation,  marks  the  carriage  as  her  choice 
of  evils.  The  English  engineer  seats  himself  with  our 
driver,  Madame  and  I  take  the  back  seat,  our  driver's  whip 
cracks  savagely,  and  off  we  go  for  Tule  and  Mitla.  The 
other  vehicle  containing  Dr.  Batres  and  his  son,  and  creak- 
ing ominously  under  the  burden  of  the  conservators  portly 
Idi  in.  quickly  follows.  Dr.  Batres  is  to  stop  at  the  palace 
of  the  governor  of  Oaxaca  to  get  papers  from  that  official 
addressed  to  the  municipal  authorities  of  Tlacolula,  and  to 
overtake  us  at  the  Big  Tree.  The  conservator  of  ancient 
monuments  had  a  double  mission  on  this  trip.  He  w;is  en- 
gaged in  an  inspection  of  the  ruins  in  his  charge,  in  order  to 
see  that  they  were  in  readiness  for  examination  by  the  Con- 
gress of  Americanistas,  a  society  composed  largely  of  Euro- 
peans, wThich  devotes  itself  to  the  study  of  American  anti- 
quities, and  which  was  soon  to  meet  for  the  first  time  in  its 
history  in  the  new  world,  and  in  the  City  of  Mexico.  Dr. 
Batres  was  also  enlisted  in  a  man  hunt,  a  search  for  typical 
Zapotecs,  to  be  displayed  as  ethnological  exhibits  before  the 
same  Congress  of  Americanistas.  Inasmuch  as  he  spoke  the 
Indian  dialects,  Spanish  and  French,  and  had  an  intimate 
knowledge  from  his  official  position  of  the  ruins  visited,  he 
proved,  as  might  be  expected,  a  valuable  companion  on  our 
travels. 

Oaxaca  has  reached  that  stage  of  municipal  development 
in  which  the  streets  are  paved  with  rough  cobble-stones,  and 
the  only  unpleasant  bits  of  travel  in  our  excursion  were 
within  Oaxaca's  limits,  before  the  hard,  well-beaten  dirt 
road  of  the  country  was  reached.  Upon  this  thoroughfare 
our  vehicle  moved  along  smoothly  and  rapidly,  and  the  pro- 
cession of  Indian  vehicles  and  pedestrians  which  we  passed 
on  their  way  to  town  kept  us  constantly  pleased  and  in- 


84 

terested.  The  Oaxaca  typical  vehicle  is  an  ox-cart,  the  oxen 
burdened  and  adorned  with  rude  yokes,  fastened  to  the  horns 
and  extending  backward  over  the  top  of  the  head  and  neck, 
and  the  cart  lumbering  along  on  clumsy  wooden  wheels, 
with  massive,  far-projecting  hubs.  Sometimes  the  wheel  is 
in  a  single  piece,  the  section  of  a  tree  trunk,  and  always  in 
the  rural  districts  it  closely  approximates  this  primitive 
form. 

A    GIANT   AMONG    TREES. 

Seven  or  eight  miles  from  Oaxaca  we  turned  from  the 
main  road  into  a  lane  running  through  a  grove  of  trees,  one 
of  the  streets  of  Tule  village,  and  in  less  than  a  half  mile 
from  this  point  we  came  to  the  church  of  Santa  Maria  del 
Tule  and  the  monster  tree  in  the  churchyard.  As  one  passes 
through  the  gateway  which  pierces  the  high  adobe  wall  sur- 
rounding the  church  enclosure,  he  comes  face  to  face  with 
the  mighty  ahuehuete  or  Mexican  cypress,  and  the  sight 
takes  his  breath  away.  The  vast  bulk  of  its  trunk  and 
branches  dwarfs  into  insignificance  the  church  standing 
close  by.  It  seems  impossible  that  this  area  of  vegetable 
growth  should  come  from  a  single  shoot,  and  the  fact  that 
the  surface  of  the  trunk  is  not  smooth  and  regular,  but  is 
deeply  indented,  with  huge  ribs  standing  out  at  intervals 
like  the  sails  of  a  giant  windmill,  tends  to  strengthen  the 
impression  that  the  tree  is  a  composite,  a  case  of  vegetable 
Siamese  twins,  or  perhaps  the  Tule  triplets  among  trees. 
One  M.  Anza  is  quoted  as  saying  concerning  it  in  the  last 
century  that  "three  united  trunks  form  the  famous  sabino 
of  Santa  Maria  del  Tule."  But  later  travelers  do  not  coin- 
cide with  M.  Anza,  and  M.  Charnay,  the  French  savant, 
who  visited  this  province  when  engaged  in  his  world-famous 
investigations  in  Chiapas  and  Yucatan,  expressly  negatives 
this  view.  With  this  preface,  let  us  plunge  at  once  into  fig 
tires  and  announce  that  according  to  the  latest  measure- 
ments (those  made  by  Campbell  and  given  in  his  Mexican 
guide),  the  circumference  of  the  trunk  six  feet  from  the 
ground,  is  154  feet  and  2  inches.  Some  of  its  branches 
spread  out  a  hundred  feet  from  the  trunk,  and  the  height 
of  the  tree  IF?  about  160  feet. 

In  one  side  of  the  trunk  is  pointed  out  a  wooden  tablet, 
over  which  the  bark  has  grown  until  it  has  become  almost 
a  part  of  the  tree,  and  a  nearly  illegible  inscription  appears 
upon  it,  said  to  have  been  signed  and  placed  there  by  the 


85 

great  Humboldt,  who  is  alleged  to  have  declared  that  there 
is  no  other  tree  to  surpass  this  in  the  whole  world,  save  a 
certain  one  which  he  saw  in  Africa.  The  stranger  knock- 
ing about  in  Mexico  is  apt  after  a  time  to  find  the  German 
savant  and  great  American  traveler  something  of  a  bore. 
Everywhere  you  run  up  against  some  reminder  of  the  ubi- 
quity of  the  man.  If  you  wax  enthusiastic  over  the  view 
from  Chapultepec  or  the  Cathedral  towers,  you  soon  dis- 
cover that  Humboldt  has  seen  it  all,  and  said  whatever  it 
was  most  appropriate  to  say.  You  admire  the  statue  of 
Charles  IV.  on  the  Paseo,  and  are  told  that  Humboldt,  too, 
thought  it  was  fine,  surpassed  only  by  that  of  Marcus  Au- 
relius  in  Rome.  And  when  the  ordinary  traveler  thinks  that 
he  has  found  something  new  and  surprising  in  compara- 
tively untrodden  wilds,  Humboldt  is  thrown  in  his  face  in 
a  most  discouraging  fashion.  After  a  while  one  gets  the 
impression  that  this  very  comprehensive  wanderer  and  in- 
vestigator of  over  ninety  years  ago  saw  everything  Mexican 
that  there  was  to  see,  walked  and  rode  everywhere,  armed 
with  barometer,  thermometer  and  other  scientific  weapons, 
climbed  all  the  heights,  measured  and  pictured  and  philoso- 
phized upon  all  the  ruins,  compared  everything  with  some- 
thing somewhere  and  some  time  else,  and  spared  not  even 
the  Big  Tree  from  his  objectionable  omnipresence.  When 
Walter  Wellman  finally  discovers  the  North  Pole  he  will 
undoubtedly  find  Humboldt's  name  carved  upon  it,  together 
with  an  inscription  stating  that  the  North  Pole  is  unsur- 
passed in  its  way  by  anything  that  Humboldt  had  ever  seen 
except  the  South  Pole,  which  is  loftier,  and  from  which  th<> 
prospect  is  notably  finer  and  more  extensive. 

AS    TO   TULE,   HUMBOLDT   NEVER   IN    IT. 

These  reflections  under  Tule  tree,  which  were  reasonable 
certainly  at  that  time  and  place,  were  modified  somewhat 
when  I  found  later  that  Humboldt  did  not  compare  the 
Mexican  tree  unfavorably  with  one  that  he  saw  in  Africa; 
that  (1)  his  writings  do  not  contain  this  displeasing  com- 
parison; that  (2)  he  had  never  been  in  Africa,  and  that  (3) 
according  to  an  intimation  of  H.  H.  Bancroft  he  did  not 
visit  the  Mitla  neighborhood  during  his  Mexican  perambu- 
lations. 

ran  it  be  that  the  great  Humboldt  is  a  great  Humbug — 
the  forerunner  and  model  of  the  modern  fake-fabricating 


86 

foreign  correspondent?  Perish  the  thought.  Humboldt 
visited  President  Jefferson  and  Washington  city  in  1804 
and  was  warm  in  his  praises  of  the  beauty  of  the  city's 
site.  A  man  who  gives  such  pleasing  evidence  of  good 
judgment  and  discerning  taste  cannot  be  a  fakir. 

Humboldt's  statements  in  his  Political  Essay  on  the  King- 
dom of  New  Spain  concerning  the  Tule  tree,  seen  or  unseen, 
which  are  made  as  if  of  his  own  knowledge,  without  refer- 
ence to  another  as  authority,  are  as  follows: 

"At  the  village  of  Santa  Maria  del  Tule,  three  leagues 
east  from  the  capital,  between  Santa  Lucia  and  Tlacoche- 
guaya,  there  is  an  enormous  trunc  of  cupressus  disticha 
isabino)  of  thirty-six  metres  (118  feet)  in  circumference. 
This  ancient  tree  is  consequently  larger  than  the  cypress  of 
Atlixco,  of  which  we  have  already  spoken,  the  dragonnier 
of  the  Canary  Islands  and  all  the  baobabs  of  Africa." 

This  tree  is  as  worthy  of  admiring  study  as  any  of  the 
ruins  which  are  so  thick  in  Oaxaca,  the  site  of  hundreds  of 
forgotten  cities  of  the  past.  Jt  is  a  Mexican  antiquity 
which,  instead  of  crumbling  gradually  to  dust,  adds  yearly 
to  its  vast  girth  and  stature,  and  promises  to  live  and  grow 
for  centuries  to  come.  In  ages  past  it  was,  and  it  still  is,  an 
object  of  wonder  and  veneration  to  the  Indians.  It  is  said 
that  Cortes  camped  under  it  in  his  historic  march  to  Hon 
duras.  If  he  did,  however,  he  left,  to  his  credit,  be  it  said, 
no  commemorative  tablet  a  la  Humboldt.  In  brief,  the 
Tule  cypress  is  possibly  the  oldest  and  stoutest  tree  in  the 
world. 

I  have  seen  the  Mariposa  group  of  big  trees  in  California, 
which  are  world  famous  for  their  girth,  but  no  one  of  the 
redwoods  begins  to  be  as  impressive  a  spectacle  as  the  Mexi- 
can ahuehuete.  The  latter  is  not  of  a  height  to  correspond 
to  the  area  covered  by  its  trunk  and  spreading  branches, 
and  is  much  shorter  than  a  number  of  the  redwoods,  both 
of  the  Mariposa  and  Calaveras  groups.  The  cypress  is  not, 
however,  of  a  squatty  appearance.  The  smooth-surfaced 
trunk  of  the  redwood  shoots  upward  in  a  graceful  column 
KomriiiiH  s  t\\o  hundred  feet  before  it  is  broken  by  branches, 
and  no  great  expanse  of  foliage  adds  to  its  spectacular  ef- 
fectiveness. The  Tule  cypress,  on  the  contrary,  sends  up  its 
vast,  gnarled,  deeply  indented,  venerable-looking  trunk  only 
about  t\\«-iiiy  feet  before  it  shoots  out  branches  in  every  di- 
rection, as  thick  as  large  trees  at  the  junction  with "  the 
trunk,  iiiid  stn-trhing  between  fifty  and  a  hundred  feet  from 


87 

it.  The  diameter  of  the  circle  of  the  ground  space  under- 
neaih  the  tree's  spreading  branches  is  141  feet.  From  the 
point  where  the  foliage  begins  to  the  tree  top  is  about  140 
feet.  The  impressiveness  of  this  vast  area  of  foliage  may 
be  imagined. 

THE    BIGNESS    OF    THE    TULE    TREE. 

Successive  A'isitors  to  the  Tule  tree  who  have  measured  it 
and  printed  the  resulting  figures  have  varied  considerably 
in  their  reports.  It  has,  of  course,  increased  in  size  every 
year.  The  absorption  of  the  so-called  Humboldt  tablet  into 
the  bod}7  of  the  tree  gives  an  indication  of  this  growth.  FOF 
convenience,  I  will  put  in  tabular  shape  some  of  the  succes- 
sive measurements  of  the  Tule  cypress,  and  the  correspond- 
ing figures  concerning  the  California  redwoods. 

THE    TULE    TREE. 

Circumference.   Height. 
Humboldt  (1803)  .....................  118  feet. 

Von  Tempsky  (1853)  ..................  135  feet. 

Ober  (1883).'.  ........................  146  feet.  160 

(5  ft.  from  ground.) 
Campbell  (recent)  ..................  154  ft.  2  in. 

(6  ft.  from  ground.) 
1  1;  i  ires  Expedicion  (recent.  .66  metres  —  216.3  ft. 

CALIFORNIA    BIG    TREES. 

Circumference.  Height. 

'  i  i  i/xly  Giant  (Mariposa)  ...............   !>4  (250) 

Highest  Mariposa  tree  .................  -  272 

Keystone  State  (Calaveras)  ............   45  325 


Batres  measurement  asserting  a  circumference  of 
over  200  feet  is  printed  upon  the  only  photograph  of  the 
iree  which  now  seems  to  be  sold  in  the  Mexican  shops.  It 
probably  gives  the  girth  of  the  trunk  close  to  the  ground. 
where  the  great  ribs  of  the  tree  swell  outward  as  they  enter 
the  soil,  and  it  is  difficult  to  decide  with  precision  where  the 
beribbed  trunk  ends  and  the  roots  begin.  Other  variations 
of  measurement  are  probably  due  largely  to  the  different 
degrees  in  which  the  measurers  followed  the  irregularities 
in  the  deeply  indented  trunk. 


88 

AN    OAXACAN    CATASTROPHE. 

While  we  were  still  trying  to  grasp  an  adequate  concep- 
tion of  the  magnitude  of  the  Big  Tree,  and  were  puzzling 
ourselves  as  to  whether  it  was  twins,  triplets,  quadruplets 
or  a  single  individual,  the  Batres  equipage  crawled  slowly 
into  view,  displaying  a  broken  back,  spliced  with  splints 
and  rope.  "It  is  well,  Madame,"  said  Dr.  Batres,  "that  you 
chose  the  other  coach.  My  own  has  broken  in  two  and 
tumbled  me  upon  the  ground."  It  often  happened  that  Dr. 
Batres,  who  was  educated  in  Paris,  spoke  such  un-American 
French  that  we  had  difficulty  in  comprehending  him,  but 
the  meaning  of  his  words  on  this  occasion,  supplemented 
as  they  were  by  appropriate  accompanying  gestures,  full  of 
animation,  was  on  the  instant  perfectly  and  painfully  evi- 
dent. 

Soon  our  procession  moved  again  through  the  streets  of 
Tule.  Our  reception  in  this  Indian  village  and  in  others 
through  which  we  passed,  as  like  it  as  peas  in  a  pod,  was 
African,  and  many  of  the  sights  were  African  also.  We 
were  greeted  at  the  beginning  of  the  long  main  street  by 
outposts  of  barking,  snarling  dogs,  whose  numbers  increased 
and  the  volume  of  whose  chorus  enlarged  as  we  penetrated 
the  village.  The  fences  on  either  side  of  the  street  were 
hedges  of  organ  cactus,  the  gates  were  cane,  sugar  cane  or 
bamboo.  As  in  a  new  Western  mining  camp  there  is  a 
gradual  development  in  man's  habitations,  beginning  with 
the  tent,  then  passing  to  the  chimneyless  hut  of  rough  logs 
of  uneven  lengths,  then  to  the  cabin  of  smoothed,  planed 
logs  or  even  lumber,  equipped  with  windows  and  a  chim- 
ney, so  there  is  a  similar  evolution  in  Oaxaca's  villages. 
The  aristocrats  live  in  adobe  structures  with  tiled  roofs. 
The  plebeians  build  themselves  primitive  dwellings  of  wat- 
tled cane  work  plastered  with  clay,  windowless,  chimney- 
less,  thatched  either  with  palmetto  or  maguey  leaves,  ac- 
cording to  the  altitude  and  temperature  of  the  village. 
There  are  palms  in  abundance  in  tropical  Mexico,  but  on 
the  higher  levels  the  maguey  takes  its  place,  the  general 
utility  plant  of  the  Mexican,  who  eats  its  sprouts,  thatches 
his  roof  and  feeds  his  fires  with  its  dried  leaves,  makes  pins 
and  needles  of  its  thorns,  twine,  rope  and  paper  from  its 
fiber,  and  pulque  (beer)  and  mescal  (whiskey)  from  its  juice. 
With  us  the  maguey  is  called  the  century  plant,  because  it 
is  supposed,  erroneously,  to  blossom  only  once  in  a  hundred 
years.  In  Mexico  it  may  be  properly  called  the  century 
plant,  because  it  has  at  least  a  hundred  uses. 


89 


AN    AMERICAN    TIMBUCTOO. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  in  habitations  and  living  occu- 
pants of  the  streets,  from  snarling  dogs  and  patient  donkeys 
to  dark-skinned,  lightty-clad  natives,  there  should  be  sug- 
gestions of  Africa.  These  villages  are  in  the  same  latitude 
with  Senegal  in  Senegambia,  with  Timbuctoo,  and  with  the 
sixth  cataract  of  the  Nile,  with  Bombay  in  India  and  Ma- 
nila in  the  Philippine  Islands. 

The  most  interesting  Indian  village  which  we  visited  lies 
between  Tule  and  Tlacolula  on  a  by-way  diverging  from  the 
main  road,  and  boasts  the  euphonious  name  of  Tlacoxa- 
liuaja.  In  the  old  times  all  of  fruitful  Oaxaca  was  densely 
populated  with  a  series  of  magnificent  cities,  now  dead  and 
buried  and  crumbled  into  dust. 

"And  millions  in  these  solitudes, 
Since  first  the  flight  of  years  began, 
Have  laid  them  down  to  their  last  sleep." 

The  natives  of  the  present,  living  over  the  remains  of  the 
myriads  of  the  past,  are  constantly  unearthing  antiquities, 
treasures  of  the  buried  dead,  which  they  sell  cheaply  to  semi- 
occasional  visitors.  Dr.  Batres  and  the  English  engineer 
were  ardent  pursuers  of  bargains  in  these  antiquities.  And 
thereby  hangs  a  tale,  the  Tlacoxahuaja  episode.  As  we 
drove  slowly  up  the  main  street  of  the  Zapotec  town,  ac 
fompanied  by  our  customary  reception  committee  of  yelping 
curs,  there  issued,  it  seemed,  from  every  other  house  Tla- 
coxahuajans  of  both  sexes  and  all  ages,  offering  antiquities 
for  our  inspection,  heads  of  jade,  idols  of  stone  or  clay  of 
varying  sizes  and  degrees  of  dilapidation,  but  of  unvarying 
ugliness.  Finally  Dr.  Batres'  broken-backed  wagon,  which 
led  the  way,  stopped,  the  procession  came  to  a  halt  and  Dr. 
Batres  disappeared  in  one  of  Tlacoxahuaja's  lanes.  He  was 
on  the  track  of  a  rare  treasure,  his  driver  said,  and  would 
return  quickly.  Meanwhile  the  crowd  of  curio-venders  took 
possession  of  us. 

When  half  an  hour  had  passed  without  any  indication  of 
Dr.  Batres'  return  the  English  engineer,  evidently  yearning 
to  discover  behind  the  cactus  hedges  and  in  the  thatched 
huts  some  priceless  antiquity,  recently  unearthed,  could  no 
longer  restrain  his  uneasiness  concerning  the  missing  con- 
servator of  ancient  monuments,  and  though  he  himself 
could  speak  not  a  word  of  Zapotec  valiantly  volunteered  to 


90 

go  upon  a  tour  of  discovery  in  search  of  the  lost  one  with 
the  additional  idea,  possibly,  of  conserving  some  ancient 
monuments  himself.  So  he  disappeared  also.  Within  an- 
other half  hour  the  peddlers  of  antiquities  discovered  that 
we  green  hands  made  no  purchases  except  upon  the  advice 
of  our  missing  experts,  so  they  arranged  themselves  in  the 
shadow  of  the  hedge  and  patiently  waited,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  one  hideous  hag,  who  became  insulted  at  our  lack  of 
appreciation  of  her  offered  idol,  anathematized  us  vigorous- 
ly and  hid  herself  in  her  hut. 

SCENES    IN    AN    INDIAN    VILLAGE. 

In  another  half  hour  I  had  photographed  numerous  Tla- 
coxahuajans  and  their  dwellings,  the  patient  group  of  curio 
vendors,  the  shifting  scenes  on  the  village  street.  Here,  in 
front  of  a  low  hut,  of  which  a  section  of  the  thatched  roof 
was  broken  away,  so  that  its  foundation  framework  of  light 
poles  protruded  skeleton-like,  was  a  group  of  Zapotecs  at 
home,  cunning  moon-faced  babies  on  the  backs  of  only 
slightly-bigger  brother  and  sister,  full-grown  men  dressed  in 
white  cotton,  with  sombrero,  serape  and  sandals.  Here  a 
half-naked  Zapotec  with  fine  muscular  development  of  the 
arms  and  chest  labors  along  the  main  street  under  an  im- 
mense, filled,  cylindrical  basket,  much  larger  and  heavier 
than  himself.  Here  come§  riding  by  a  Zapotec  maiden, 
mounted  on  a  donkey,  with  basket  panniers  on  either  side, 
tin-  damsel's  eyes  shaded  from  the  sun  by  her  reboso  con- 
verted into  an  impromptu  hood.  While  we  were  curiously 
inspecting  a  procession  of  horsemen,  followed  by  numerous 
heavily  laden  mules,  which  we  were  told,  were  bull  fighters 
and  their  paraphernalia  on  their  way  to  perform  in  a  neigh- 
boring village,  Dr.  Batres  appeared,  eager  to  take  his  de- 
parture, and  impatient  and  disturbed  at  the  absence  of  the 
English  engineer,  who  was  supposed  to  be  searching  for 
him.  After  another  period  of  shouting  and  waiting  and 
fretting,  the  Englishman  came  in  sight,  and  as  he  ap- 
proached we  saw  that  his  face  was  radiant  with  the  joyful 
enthusiasm  of  one  who  has  unearthed  a  long-lost  treasure. 
As  to  whether  he  was  in  fact  laden  with  one  or  more  pre- 
cious antiquities  deponent  sayeth  not.  Presumably  not, 
for  it  is  unlawful  to  remove  such  finds  from  Mexico,  and  I 
do  not  believe  that  the  .Mexican  National  Museum  was  in 
any  respect  richer  for  our  trip. 

As  darkness  gathered  at  the  end  of  our  first  day's  expe- 
rience we  drove  into  Tlacolula.  where  we  were  to  spend  the 
night. 


MITLA'S  RUINS. 


Palaces,  Pyramids,  and  Tombs  of  Zapotec  Kings— An 
Ancient  City  of  the  New  World— Mosaics,  Columns, 
and  Fresco  Paintings  of  a  Vanished  Civilization— 
The  Hidden  Treasure  City. 

[Editorial  correspondence  of  the  Evening  Star,  February  8,  1896.] 

\\ "c  were  awakened  at  a  very  early  hour  in  the  morning 
by  the  shrill  voices  of  the  choir  boys  in  Tlacol  ilia's  Church, 
close  to  the  window  of  our  improvised  hotel  in  this  Mexican 
Indian  village.  The  church  to  which  our  attention  was  thus 
attracted  proved  interesting,  not  merely  from  its  youthful 
choristers,  but  from  its  magnificent  display  of  antique  solid 
silver,  which  in  some  miraculous  way  escaped  confiscation 
in  the  struggles  between  church  and  state  during  the  reform 
era.  And  we  captured  the  best  of  our  typical  Zapotecs 
while  he  was  cleaning  some  of  this  very  silver  in  front  of 
the  old  church  building. 

A    MAN-HUNT. 

I  have  mentioned  that  Dr.  Batres  was  collecting  Zapotec 
types  to  exhibit  in  connection  with  his  proposed  address 
he  fore  the  Congress  of  Americanistas,  then  soon  to  meet  in 
the  City  of  Mexico.  Dr.  Batres  had  very  definite  and  fixed 
ideas  of  the  facial  and  physical  characteristics  of  the  differ- 
ent Indian  tribes  of  early  Mexico.  Indeed,  he  had  unalter- 
ably formulated  in  lectures  and  publications  his  theories  on 
this  subject.  He  had  previously  caught  and  confined  in  his 
house  iii  .Mexico  some  Tarascans  who  looked  as  Tarascans 
ought;  A/tecs  and  Toltecs  were  readily  to  be  captured  in 
the  valley  of  Mexico  or  thereabouts;  but  his  hunting  ground 
of  genuine  /apotecs  was  limited  to  the  section  of  country 
\\hich  we  were  then  visiting.  A  hooked  nose  projecting  like 
a  beak  from  a  long  face  was  the  most  conspicuous  charac- 
teristic of  Dr.  Batres'  typical  Zapotec.  So  our  party  made 
a  specialty  of  carefully  inspecting  Indian  noses  on  every 
occasion.  The  Jefe  Politico  or  Mayor  of  Tlacolula,  a  keen. 


92 

soldierly-looking  old  man,  to  whom  Dr.  Batres  had  letters 
from  the  Governor  of  Oaxaca,  entered  heartily  into  the  spirit 
of  the  man-hunt.  He  brought  up  group  after  group  of  Za- 
potecs,  typical  or  otherwise,  to  shake  hands  with  our  party 
in  turn  and  to  submit  their  noses  to  a  competitive  examina- 
tion. Nearly  all  of  them  found  difficulty  in  believing  that 
anybody  would  be  so  foolishly  extravagant  as  to  pay  their 
expenses  to  Mexico,  enabling  them  to  enjoy  the  luxury  of 
being  in  that  city  during  the  world-famous  coronation  of 
the  Virgin  of  Guadalupe,  merely  out  of  interest  in  the  shape 
of  their  noses,  and  the  most  effective  work  of  the  Jefe  Po- 
litico consisted  in  restoring  confidence  in  the  rectitude  of 
Dr.  Batres'  intentions  concerning  them.  As  a  rule  they 
were  as  suspicious  and  timorous  as  a  Washington  colored 
boy  would  be  if  offered  his  expenses  and  something  in  ad- 
dition to  go  over  and  exhibit  himself  at  night  to  a  Baltimore 
medical  college.  The  group  of  young  men,  however,  who 
were  polishing  up  silver  in  front  of  Tlacolula  Church  showed 
no  uneasiness  whatsoever.  They  were  eager  to  avail  them- 
selves of  so  good  an  opportunity  to  behold  the  coronation 
of  the  Virgin,  and  they  vigorously  impressed  upon  the  party 
of  inspection  the  merits  of  their  respective  noses.  One  se- 
lected from  this  group  became  the  leader  of  the  three  typical 
Zapotecs  finally  chosen,  and  at  intervals  on  our  journey  from 
Mitla  until  we  saw  them  for  the  last  time  in  Dr.  Batres' 
house  in  Mexico,  these  Indian  exhibits  would  file  solemnly 
into  our  presence  and  shake  hands  ceremoniously  all  around, 
amusingly  suggestive  of  the  delegation  from  Cambodia, 
which  haunted  Wang  in  the  comic  opera. 

MITLA'S  FAMOUS   RUINS. 

When  our  procession  left  Tlacolula  for  Mitla,  eight  miles 
away,  the  Jefe  Politico  accompanied  us,  and  in  our  visits 
to  the  ruins  served  as  our  guide,  companion  and  familiar 
friend.  At  Mitla  we  found  another  hacienda  converted  into 
a  hotel,  where  we  were  comfortably  accommodated. 

Mitla  is  one  of  the  famous  ancient  cities  of  Central  Amer- 
ica, and  as  a  new  world  ruin  it  is  in  the  same  class  in  point 
of  interest  with  Palenque  in  Chiapas,  TJxmal  in  Yucatan, 
and  Copan  in  Honduras.  Where  a  vast  city  once  stretched 
its  streets  and  raised  its  temple-crowned  pyramids  and 
wonderful  palaces  now  all  is  solitude  and  desolation  save 
for  a  miserable  Indian  village  of  thatched  huts,  and  the  fast 
disappearing  remnants  of  three  or  four  palaces  and  a  few 


93 

of  the  countless  pyramids  of  ages  ago.  Unlike  the  other 
notable  ruins  of  Mexico  which  are  overgrown  and  hidden 
by  luxuriant  tropical  vegetation,  Mitla  is  exposed  to  the 
sun  and  wind  of  a  desolate  barren  sandy  valley,  in  its  site 
resembling  more  the  Egyptian  ruins  along  the  Nile  than 
its  new  world  neighbors.  Whether  Mitla  was  built  by  Za- 
potecs  or  Toltecs  or  a  race  of  men  preceding  both,  whether 
it  is  700,  1,700  or  2,700  years  old,  whether  the  ancestors  of 
its  builders  came  from  China  or  Cambodia  or  Egypt  or  West 
Africa,  or  were  of  American  origin  are  questions  over  which 
the  archaeologists  may  be  permitted  to  quarrel  undisturbed. 
No  inscriptions  are  found  here  to  give  a  clue,  and  the  hiero- 
glyphics discovered  in  the  other  Central  American  cities 
have  never  yet  been  deciphered,  but  await  still  their  Rosettn 
Stone. 

Leaving  the  cool  court  yard  of  our  adobe  "hotel,"  with 
its  orange  and  pomegranate  trees  and  it  surprisingly  harmo- 
nious monkey  and  parrots,  we  soon  reached  the  outskirts  of 
the  modern  Indian  village,  and  began  to  run  the  gauntlet 
of  antiquity  vendors,  composed  largely  of  girls  and  boys 
with  ugly  idols,  masks  and  beads,  collected  from  palaces 
and  tombs.  Some  of  the  children  had  the  sweet  and  plain- 
tive voices  of  the  water  girls  of  the  Nile.  The  babies  were 
more  attractive  than  the  Egyptian,  since  their  teeth  were 
just  as  white,  while  their  eyes  were  not  sore  and  fly-infested 
like  those  of  the  race  upon  the  Nile,  which  is  cursed  with 
ophthalmia  as  with  an  epidemic.  After  threading  our  way 
among  numerous  cane-built  huts  and  spreading  consterna- 
tion among  the  Zapotec  children  of  tender  years  we  came 
to  the  first  of  ancient  Mitla's  exhibits,  a  recently  excavated 
tomb  of  plain  stone,  without  ornamentation  or  inscription. 
Near  by  numerous  pyramidal  mounds  were  scattered  among 
the  houses.  We  examined  one  which  had  been  cut  entirely 
through,  and  thoroughly  excavated.  Like  many  other  of 
the  Mexican  pyramids,  these  mounds,  through  the  action 
of  the  elements,  have  assumed  the  appearance  of  natural 
conical  hills,  and  it  is  only  when  one  is  pierced  by  the  inves- 
tigator that  its  artificial  character  is  made  plain.  These 
small  mounds  are  pronounced  by  Dr.  Batres  to  be  in  ma- 
terial and  method  of  construction  miniatures  of  the  great 
pyramids  of  the  sun  and  moon  at  Teotihuacan,  twenty-seven 
miles  from  the  city  of  Mexico.  The  latter  pyramids  have 
interiors  of  clay  and  volcanic  pebbles,  incrusted  on  the  sur- 
face with  a  light  porous  stone,  over  which  there  was  origin 
ally  a  coating  of  white  stucco,  such  as  was  used  for  dwell- 


94 

ings.  The  largest  of  Mitla's  pyramids  is  one  which  stands 
to  the  west  of  the  main  palace  group,  which  we  soon  ap- 
proach. It  bears  upon  its  summit  a  small  chapel,  the  in- 
variable Spanish  substitute  for  the  Indian  temple  which 
surmounted  the  pyramid  in  this  part  of  the  world. 

MEXICAN    AND    EGYPTIAN    PYRAMIDS. 

All  of  these  structures  in  Mexico  bear  a  strong  family  re- 
semblance, whether  they  are  tiny,  as  at  Mitla,  or  monstrous, 
covering  forty-five  acres,  as  at  Cholula,  near  Puebla.  In 
every  case  they  are  the  foundations  of  a  temple  or  palace; 
whereas  the  Egyptian  pyramid  is  a  tomb  and  nothing  else. 
The  latter  rose  to  an  apex;  the  former  was  truncated  and 
bore  a  structure  upon  it  which  was  accessible  by  a  stairway. 
Height  was  the  conspicuous  feature  of  the  Egyptian  pyra- 
mid; area  covered  was  that  of  the  Mexican  pyramid.  The 
former  was,  as  a  rule,  made  of  stone ;  the  latter  generally  of 
sun-dried  bricks.  But  there  are  brick  pyramids  in  the  old 
world,  including  one  near  Sakhara,  Egypt.  Humboldt,  who 
did  see  the  pyramid  of  Cholula,  whatever  may  have  been  the 
case  in  respect  to  Tule  tree  and  the  ruins  of  Mitla,  compares 
it  with  the  other  great  pyramids  of  the  world.  The  dimen- 
sions are  given  in  French  feet,  each  of  which  equals  1.066 
English  feet. 

STONE    PYRAMIDS. 

Length 
Height.  of  base. 

riu-ops,  Egypt 448  728 

Cephren,  Egypt 398  655 

Myrerinus,  Egypt : 162  280 

BRICK    PYRAMIDS. 

Length 
Height.  of  base. 

Sakhara,  Egypt 150  210 

Teotihuacan,  Mexico 171  645 

Cholula,  Mexico. 172  1,355 

ID  Cholula  pyramid  the  length  of  the  base  is  to  the  per- 
pendicular height  as  8  to  1,  while  in  the  stone  pyramids  of 
(Ihi/rh  the  corresponding  proportion  is  8  to  5.  The  former 
was  to  be  climbed  to  a  surmounting  structure  like  an  artifi- 
cial capitol  hill,  hence  its  grades  were  rendered  easy  by  cov- 


95 

rring  ;m  immense  area  with  ;i  comparatively  l»»\v  mound. 
Tin-  latter  was  no  more  to  be  scaled  than  the  exterior  of  any 
other  monumental  shaft,  and  it  was  pushed  high  in  the  air 
regardless  of  the  steepness  of  grade.  Cholula  pyramid  is 
consequently  more  than  twice  as  large  at  the  base  as  Cheops, 
the  biggest  of  the  Ghizeh  pyramids,  while  it  is  considerably 
less  than  half  as  high  as  Cheops,  and  very  little  higher  than 
Myrerinus,  the  smallest  of  the  Ghizeh  group. 

A  short  distance  to  the  east  from  the  chapel-crowned  pyra- 
mid of  Mitla  we  came  upon  the  best  preserved  of  the  ruins, 
the  main  or  royal  palace.  Here  many  years  ago  four  struc- 
tures, built  on  oblong  mounds  of  stone  and  earth  about  six 
feel  high,  faced  a  central  court.  The  north  and  south  build- 
ings were  about  130  feet  long;  the  east  and  west  mounds 
120  feet.  Only  the  northern  structure,  the  one  whose  south 
front  faces  the  court,  is  reasonably  well  preserved.  Frag- 
ments of  the  east  buildings  are  standing,  traces  of  that  on 
the  west  are  visible,  but  nothing  whatsoever  remains  of  the 
.sou  ih  structure.  The  facing  of  the  front  wall  of  the  worth 
building,  containing  the  three  entrances  to  the  palace, 
is  of  large  stone  blocks  of  different  forms  and 
si/t-s,  so  arranged,  without  the  use  of  mortar,  that  the 
surface  is  broken  into  panels  of  varying  dimensions,  -filled 
with  a  so-called  mosaic  of  small  blocks  of  stone,  so  set  with 
relation  to  one  another  as  to  form  a  great  variety  of  pat- 
terns, twenty-two  different  figures  having  been  counted  on 
this  single  wall.  In  ordinary  mosaic  tiny  pieces  of 
glass,  marble  or  other  material  are  cemented  on 
stucco  in  various  designs.  Here  the  design,  which  is  always 
rectangular  or  diagonal  in  character,  is  formed  by  the  pro- 
jecting heads  of  oblong-shaped  pieces  of  soft  sandstone,  cut 
with  the  greatest  accuracy  and  nicety,  so  as  to  fit  for  their 
whole  length  close  together.  The  lintels  of  the  doorways 
are  immense  blocks  of  stone,  two  of  them  being  over  nine- 
teen feet  long.  The  wall  is  about  eighteen  feet  high  and 
130  feet  long.  The  three  doorways  give  entrance  to  what 
may  be  called 

THE    HALL    OF   COLUMNS, 

a  room  extending  in  length  the  full  130  feet  of  the  palace's 
width  and  about  66  feet  wide.  In  a  row  in  the  center  of  the 
hall  stand  six  stone  columns,  about  fourteen  feet  high,  each 
cut  from  a  single  block.  Humboldt  says  of  them: 
"What  distinguishes  the  ruins  of  Mitla  -from  all 


the  other  ruins  of  Mexican  architecture  is  six  por- 
phyry columns,  which  are  placed  in  the  midst  of  a  vast  hall 
and  support  the  ceiling.  These  columns,  almost  the  only 
ones  found  in  the  new  continent,  bear  strong  marks  of  the 
infancy  of  the  art.  They  have  neither  base  nor  capitals.  A 
simple  contraction  of  the  upper  part  is  only  to  be  remarked.'* 
John  L.  Stephens,  the  American  who  did  so  much  to  enter- 
tain and  enlighten  the  world  in  respect  to  the  buried  cities 
of  Central  America,  did  not  visit  Mitla,  and  generalizing 
from  what  he  had  seen  and  failed  to  see  in  the  other  ruins  he 
concludes  that  the  Mexican  architecture  could  not  have  been 
derived  from  the  Egyptian  because  among  many  reasons 
columns  are  absent  from  the  new  continent.  He  says : 

"Again:  Columns  are  a  distinguishing  feature  of  Egyptian 
architecture.  There  is  not  a  temple  on  the  Nile  without 
them;  and  the  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that  among  the  whole 
of  these  ruins  not  one  column  has  been  found.  If  this  ar- 
chitecture had  been  derived  from  the  Egyptian  so  striking 
and  important  a  feature  would  never  have  been  thrown 
aside."  But  this  reasoning  fails,  for  there  are  columns  in 
Mitla,  though  they  are  contemptibly  insignificant  in  size 
compared,  let  us  say,  with  the  stupendous  columns  at  Kar- 
nak.  Adjoining  the  Mitla  Hall  of  Columns  is  a  wing,  con- 
stituting the  remainder  of  the  palace,  61  feet  square.  It  has 
a  central  court  and  four  apartments,  and  is  ornamented 
throughout  with  mosaic  work  of  the  kind  described  as  seen 
on  the  facade. 

MITLA  MOSAICS. 

The  mosaics  resemble  the  arabesque  designs,  and  are  per- 
haps the  most  striking  peculiarity  of  Mitla.  There  is  noth- 
ing like  them  in  any  other  of  the  ancient  cities  of  the  new 
world,  and  a  note  in  Humboldt's  New  Spain  quotes  M.  Zo- 
ega,  "the  most  profound  connoisseur  in  Egyptian  antiqui- 
ties," as  making  "the  curious  observation  that  the  Egyp- 
tians have  never  employed  this  species  of  ornament."  Du- 
paix,  who  visited  Mitla  in  1806,  pays  tribute  to  the  mosaics 
as  follows:  "But  what  is  most  remarkable,  interesting  and 
striking  in  these  monuments,  and  which  alone  would  be  suf- 
ficient to  give  them  the  first  rank  among  all  known  orders 
of  architecture,  is  the  execution  of  their  mosaic  relievos — 
very  different  from  plain  mosaic  and  consequently  requiring 
more  ingenious  combination  and  greater  art  and  labor.  They 
are  inlaid  on  the  surface  of  the  wall,  and  their  duration  is 


97. 

owing  to  the  method  of  fixing  the  pn-pai.-il  stones  into  the 
stone  surface,  which  made  their  union  with  it  perfect." 

I  quote  from  Dupaix  with  a  great  deal  of  pleasure,  because 
Hubert  Howe  Bancroft,  who  confesses  that  he  was  never 
here  himself,  and  who,  in  his  "Native  Races  of  the  Pacific 
States,"  almost  demonstrates  that  nobody  else  in  his  full 
senses  was  ever  here,  freely  admits  that  Dupaix  visited  Mil  la. 
yet  refrains  from  intimating  that  he  was  impossibly  far- 
sighted,  short-sighted  or  color-blind. 

South  of  the  palace  which  has  been  described,  and  close 
at  hand,  is  another  similarly  constructed  in  four  buildings 
about  a  central  court.  Fragments  only  of  the  buildings  re- 
main. The  most  interesting  feature  of  this  group  is  an  un- 
derground gallery  in  the  shape  of  a  cross.  The  walls 
are  panels  of  mosaic  work  and  show  traces  of  red  paint.  At 
the  entrance  is  a 'circular  supporting  pillar  with  a  square 
base,  called  by  the  Indians,  "the  pillar  of  death,''  in  the  be- 
lief that  whoever  embraces  it  must  die  shortly — or  some 
time.  The  Indians  also  take  a  deep  additional  interest  in 
the  subterranean  gallery,  because  it  is  thought  to  lead  to 
buried  treasure. 

FRAGMENTS   OF   FRESCO    PAINTINGS. 

To  the  north  of  the  main  palace,  and  farther  removed  from 
it  than  the  palace  with  the  subterranean  passage,  is  a  third 
group  of  buildings,  three  in  number,  284  feet  long  and  108 
feet  wide.  A  church  has  been  built  adjacent  to  or  trenching 
upon  the  site  of  the  palace,  and  the  central  of  the  ruined 
structures  now  serves,  being  repaired,  as  the  curate's  house. 
The  portion  of  this  ruin  used  as  a  stable  is  notable  as  con- 
taining some  fragments  of  rude  red  and  black  paintings, 
representing  processions,  and  viewed  as  hieroglyphical  and 
ecclesiastical  and  as  indicating  that  this  palace  was  devoted 
to  the  uses  of  the  priests,  while  the  first  palace  was  the  re- 
tiring place  in  seasons  of  sadness  of  the  king,  built  above 
royal  tombs.  The  most  elaborate  reproductions  and  expla- 
nations of  these  extremely  unsatisfactory  fragments  of  paint- 
ings are  those  just  published  by  Dr.  Edward  Seler,  who  is 
at  the  head  of  the  American  department  of  the  Ethnologic 
Mus<Mim  of  Berlin.  In  a  visit  in  1888  he  discovered  a  series 
of  these  paintings  in  the  curate's  stable,  and  after  seven 
years  of  deliberation  the  discoverer  has  made  up  his  mind 
what  the  pictures  mean,  and  has  given  his  views,  handsome- 


98 

ly  illustrated,  to  the  public.  Dr.  Seler  comes  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  story  told  in  the  unconnected  fragments  is 
nothing  else  than  that  of  Quetzalcoatl,  the  culture  hero  of 
the  Toltecs,  as  Osiris  was  the  culture  hero  of  the  Nile.  As 
the  story  of  the  whitewashed,  rain-washed  fragments  grows 
more  illegible  every  year,  it  is  unlikely  that  anybody  will 
ever  be  able  to  contradict  Dr.  Seler  as  to  the  meaning  which 
he  has  assigned  to  them  from  his  inspection  seven  years  ago. 

The  palaces  of  the  Zapotec  city  do  not  now  make  very 
imposing  ruins.  They  are  not  of  sufficient  height  to  be  im- 
pressive in  comparison  with  the  towering  temples,  pyramids, 
obelisks  and  columned  halls  of  Egypt.  The  Mitla  palaces, 
the  Cholula  pyramid  and  the  Tule  tree  are  all  wonderful  in 
the  surface  area  covered  by  them  respectively,  and  com- 
paratively insignificant  in  height.  The  mosaics,  primitive 
columns  and  fresco  paintings,  if  the  latter  are  ancient,  are 
the  unique  attractions  of  Mitla.  There  are  here  no  idols 
and  sculptured  surfaces  carved  in  figures  or  hieroglyphics 
like  those  of  which  Charnay  took  casts  in  other  ancient  cities 
of  Mexico.  In  the  whole  Charnay  collection  as  exhibited  in 
the  Smithsonian  and  National  Museum  there  is  not  a  cast 
from  Mitla.  It  is  a  peculiarity  of  these  New  World  ruins 
that  it  is  the  palaces  which  are  built  of  stone,  and  which  still 
exhibit  vast  remains  for  inspection,  while  in  Egypt  the  pal- 
aces were  of  perishable  material,  and  have  long  ago  disap- 
peared, colossal  temples  supplying  the  existing  ruins.  Speak- 
ing of  the  Mitla  palaces  standing  in  his  time,  Dupaix  says 
of  them  that  they  "were  erected  with  lavish  magnificence. 
*  They  combine  the  solidity  of  the  works  of  Egypt 
with  the  elegance  of  those  of  Greece."  Their  beauty,  says 
Charnay,  can  be  matched  only  by  the  monuments  of  Greece 
and  Rome  in  their  best  days.  Humboldt  comments  upon 
"their  symmetry  and  the  elegance  of  their  ornaments." 

As  the  zoologist  discovering  a  single  bone  can  in  an  in- 
stant in  his  mind's  eye  complete  the  skeleton,  clothe  it  with 
flesh  and  animate  it  with  the  life  of  ages  ago,  so  the  archae 
ologist  gazing  on  broken,  crumbling  ruins  can  reconstruct 
the  beautiful  and  imposing  architecture  of  the  ancient  city, 
and  revel  in  the  prospect  which  he  beholds.  The  strain  upon 
the  imagination  of  the  tyro  in  archaeology  is  sometimes  se- 
vere when  he  is  called  upon  to  follow,  without  resting  every 
footstep  of  the  expert  in  these  excursions.  But  even  the 
most  unimaginative  will  be  impelled  by  what  he  sees  here 
to  repeople  in  thought  this  barren,  desolate  valley,  to  send 
the  Mitla  streets  in  every  direction  to  far  distant  termini, 


99 

on  one  side  even  to  the  fortress  on  a  commanding  eminence 
which  still  looks  down  upon  the  city's  site,  to  raise  here 
and  there  scores  of  truncated  pyramids,  bearing  on  their 
summits  primitive  temples,  undying  fire,  and,  perhaps,  the 
shambles  of  human  sacrifice,  and  to  rebuild  in  pristine 
beauty  and  magnificence  the  royal  palaces  and  tombs  that 
furnished  the  most  notable  sights  of  this  ancient  religious 
Center  of  the  Zapotecs. 

ANCIENT    CITIES    OF    THE    NEW  WORLD. 

A  visit  here  fills  one  with  an  irresistible  desire  to  see  the 
other  ruined  cities  of  the  old  New  World — Palenque,  with 
its  stucco  adornments,  carved  tablets  and  hieroglyphics; 
Uxmal,  with  its  magnificent  buildings  and  its  sculptured  fa- 
cades of  wonderful  richness,  and  Copan,  with  its  curiously 
carved  colossal  idols  and  its  undecipherable  hieroglyphics. 
And  when  the  wonders  of  these  and  a  score  of  other  un- 
earthed cities  in  this  once  densely  populated  region  have 
been  enjoyed,  we  may  discover  in  the  unexplored  wilds  of 
Guatemala  that  silver-walled  mysterious  city  pointed  out 
at  an  inaccessible  distance  to  Stephens,  who  deposes  and 
says:  "I  conceive  it  to  be  not  impossible  that  within  this 
secluded  region  may  exist  at  this  day,  unknown  to  white 
men,  a  living  aboriginal  city,  occupied  by  relics  of  the  an- 
cient race,  who  still  worship  in  the  temples  of  their  fathers." 
In  this  gleaming,  aboriginal,  hitherto  inaccessible  city  will 
be  found  when  discovered  the  treasure  house  of  the  conti- 
nent, in  which  the  Indians  secreted  their  accumulated  treas- 
ure to  baffle  the  covetous  Spaniard.  The  discovery  of  these 
vast  deposits  of  the  precious  metals  may  be  the  final  mouth- 
ful needed  to  glut  the  world  with  silver  and  gold.  But 
more  important  even  than  the  rifling  of  the  American  treas- 
ure house  would  be  the  gain  of  treasures  of  knowledge  in 
finding  through  the  language  of  the  hidden  city  the  key  to 
unlock  the  hieroglyphics  of  Copan,  Palenque  and  Yucatan. 
Among  the  precious  stones  to  be  secured  here  will  be  a  new 
Rosetta  Stone.  Let  the  rush  of  our  explorers  be  no  longer 
to  the  North  Pole  or  the  South  Pole  or  Central  Africa,  but 
to  this  rich  and  fruitful  field. 

The  annual  exodus  from  the  United  States  into  Europe 
will  be  diverted  in  the  direction  of  these  places,  including 
the  aboriginal  treasure  city,  just  ns  soon  as  the  extension 
of  the  Pan-American  route  carries  one  within  the  range  of 
convenient  access  to  them.  Mexico  ought  to  tfncover,  pro 


100 

• 

tect  and  render  accessible  her  buried  cities,  and  as  the 
American  Egypt  she  would  attract  within  her  borders  a 
countless  host  of  tourist  visitors  annually,  bringing  thou- 
sands of  dollars  to  the  empty  purses  of  the  bulk  of  her  popu- 
lation. The  Indians  at  Mitla  steal  the  pieces  of  mosaic  in 
the  belief,  based  upon  a  tradition,  that  they  will  turn  to  gold. 
Mexico  can  verify  the  tradition  and  coin  gold  from  the  mo- 
saics by  keeping  them  in  place,  vigilantly  protecting  them 
against  vandals,  and  preserving  them  in  full  effectiveness  as 
magnets  to  draw  dollars  from  the  great  American  traveling 
public. 


NIKKO'S  GREAT  DAY. 


Festival  and  Procession  in  Honor  of  leyasu— Old  and 
New  Japan— Imitative  Orientals  in  Pursuit  of  the 
Secretof  Western  Power— Japan  Stoops  to  Conquer 

[Editorial  correspondence  of  the  Evening  Star,  February  5,  1898.] 

The  manager  of  our  hotel  at  Nikko  was  the  personification 
of  modern  Japan.  An  irrepressible  conflict  between  the  old 
and  the  new  waged  ceaselessly  within  him.  As  Europe  and 
Asia  in  surging  crowds  of  all  nationalities  occupy  simul- 
taneously or  in  succession  the  floating  bridge  across  the 
Golden  Horn  at  Constantinople,  so  oriental  and  occidental 
ideas  and  tendencies  in  turn  or  together  swept  over  the  mind 
of  our  Japanese  boniface,  rudely  jostling  and  crowding  one 
another  and  often  producing  hopeless  confusion. 

Like  others  of  the  enterprising  and  ambitious  among  his 
people  he  had  deigned  to  stoop  to  conquer,  not  to  win  love 
after  the  fashion  of  the  heroine  in  Goldsmith's  comedy,  but 
to  gain  the  secret  of  western  power.  Japan  reverences  the 
money-making,  cannon -firing  abilities  of  the  "foreign  devils." 
The  Japanese  have  humbly  placed  themselves  at  the  feet  of 
occidental  instructors  in  order  to  learn  all  the  mysteries  of  a 
new  and  strange  civilization,  with  the  confident  ambition  of 
some  day  surpassing  and  discarding  every  foreign  teacher. 
Devotion  to  no  occidental  fetich  has  been  neglected.  In 
language,  dress,  education,  military  methods  and  even  in  re- 
ligion there  has  been  painstaking  imitation.  In  the  latter 
respect  the  modern  Japanese  in  repudiating  Buddhism  and 
other  oriental  creeds  too  often  falls  short  of  Christianity  and 
sticks  in  an  intermediate  agnostic  stage  between  the  old  and 
the  new,  suggesting,  like  the  half-converted  Jew  in  the  wit- 
ticism, the  blank  page  between  the  Old  and  the  New  Testa- 
ments. 

That  our  hotel  boasted  a  visible,  responsible  manager  at 
all  was  notable  evidence  of  the  progressiveness  of  the  new 
Japan.  Yaami's,  the  famous  hostelry  at  Kioto,  was  favored 
with  no  such  official.  Neither  was  the  vast  Imperial  Hotel 
at  Tokio.  In  Japanese  inns  in  general,  outside  of  the  foreign 
concessions,  which  have  some  admirable  hotels  under  Eu- 


102 

ropean  or  American  management,  like  the  Grand  at  Yoko- 
hama, the  bedianionded  and  omniscient  hotel  clerk  of  Amer- 
ica is  represented  by  an  irresponsible  gypsy-like  group 
crouching  about  a  tiny  charcoal  fire,  kindled  apparently  in 
a  hole  in  the  floor,  among  whom  the  proprietor  sometimes 
skulks  incognito,  while  the  stranger  within  the  gates,  in 
the  absence  of  his  guide,  is  compelled  to  confide  his  griefs 
to  brown  and  plump  maidservants,  who  eke  out  an  ex- 
tremely defective  English  vocabulary  with  profound  bows 
and  pleasing  smiles. 

A    DUAL    LIFE    IN    JAPAN. 

But  here  at  Nikko  was  a  real,  live  hotel  manager,  eager  to 
please,  bubbling  over  with  enthusiasm  and  misinformation. 
During  the  day  the  oriental  section  of  his  brain  was  inactive 
and  the  occidental  had  full  sway.  Discarding  the  flowing 
robe  of  the  aristocrat  and  the  loin  cloth  or  the  sack  and  tight- 
littmg  drawers  of  the  plebeian  of  the  orient,  he  appeared  in 
ill-fitting  European  clothes  of  utilitarian  deformity  and  of 
many  colors,  like  Joseph's  coat.  His  feet,  accustomed  in- 
doors to  the  soft  tabi — a  sock  with  a  separate  compartment 
for  the  big  toe — a  foot  mitten,  so  to  speak — and  out-of-doors 
to  wooden  clogs  or  straw  sandals,  were  confined  and  cramped 
in  hard,  ugly  occidental  shoes  of  leather.  His  head,  usually 
bare  and  protected  by  a  thick  black  crop  of  hair,  was  rend- 
ered as  uneasy  as  that  which  wears  a  crown  by  the  unac- 
customed pressure  of  a  stiff  derby.  Instead  of  the  Japanese 
fan  and  parasol  he  wielded  a  cane.  In  striking  contrast  with 
the  bare,  unheated  Japanese  house,  with  its  movable  screens 
for  walls  and  partitions,  with  its  mat  floors,  highly  polished 
wood  and  its  lack  of  visible  furniture,  this  manager  con- 
ducted a  modern  hotel,  with  stove-heated  rooms,  boasting 
high  beds,  chairs  and  tables.  As  a  finishing  touch  to  the  de- 
orientalizing  process,  a  brass  band  was  let  loose  upon  the 
guests  at  dinner  time,  in  which  Japanese  performers  played 
European  music  and  conscientiously  blew  as  hard  as  they 
could  from  beginning  to  end  of  the  musical  program. 

At  night,  behold  the  manager  as  an  oriental  at  ease  in 
the  Japanese  annex  to  the  hotel,  sitting  luxuriously  on  his 
heels  on  the  floor,  arrayed  in  flowing  kimono  and  smoking 
the  tiny  pipe  which  the  Japanese  affect.  During  the  day 
he  has  been  exposed  to  the  arrogance  and  the  whims  of  occi- 
dental femininity;  at  night  the  oriental  woman  ministers 
to  him  as  a  semi-slave,  a  being  "with  never  a  soul  to  save," 


108 

who  must  borrow  a  soul  in  the  hereafter  in  order  to  con- 
tinue her  service  of  her  husbund,  her  lord  and  master,  be- 
yond the  grave.  In  this  phase  of  his  dual  life  the  manager 
reflects  with  bitterness  upon  the  despised  sex,  which,  through 
self-assertive  representatives  of  it  from  beyond  the  seas,  has 
overturned  his  preconceived  ideas  of  femininity  and  has  dis- 
gusted and  alarmed  him.  To  be  sure,  the  process  of  modern- 
izing the  Japanese  woman  in  ideas,  in  customs  and  costumes 
had  been  officially  authorized  and  had  begun,  but  happily 
a  reaction  had  set  in  and  woman  was  again  taught  to  know 
her  place.  In  his  land  man  preceded  woman  in  everything. 
Married  women  in  the  good  old  time  had  to  shave  their  eye- 
brows and  blacken  their  teeth. 

The  husband  wears  mourning  garments  for  the  dead  wife 
only  thirty  days;  the  wife  for  the  dead  husband  thirteen 
mouths.  The  wife  is  therefore  to  the  husband  as  one  to 
thirteen.  Thus  in  Japan  it  takes  even  more  women  than 
tailors  to  make  a  man.  These  thoughts  comforted  his  spir- 
its, chafed  by  the  nagging  of  women  from  over  the  sea.  It 
is  very  trying  to  the  oriental  to  be  subjected  to  feminine  ar- 
rogance. He  knows  that  both  Confucianism  and  Buddhism 
have  treated  her  as  of  an  inferior  soul-lacking  order  of  crea- 
tion; He  recollects  the  Buddhist  popular  precept:  ''Woman 
has  no  home  in  the  three  worlds — past,  present  and  future." 
Yet  here  were  women,  foreign  women,  making  themselves 
very  much  at  home  in  the  present  world,  notwithstanding 
the  proverb,  and  clearly  indicating  a  firm  determination  to 
dominate  also  in  the  world  to  come. 

Across  tlie  seas  the  woman,  he  has  learned,  takes  prece- 
dence over  the  man.  She  goes  first  everywhere,  and  the  men 
are  proud  and  happy  to  serve  her.  But  what  could  one  ex- 
pect, our  oriental  thinks,  from  foreign  devils  whose  mourn- 
ing color  is  black  instead  of  white,  who  remove  their  head- 
gear-instead  of  their  footgear  when  they  wish  to  be  polite, 
who  salute  by  handshakes  and  disgusting  kisses  instead  of 
the  traditional  bowings  and  prostrations,  and  whose  creed 
carries  barbarism  to  its  climax  in  its  impious  requirement 
that  a  man  shall  leave  father  and  mother  and  cleave  to  his 
wife. 

A    MODERN    SUBSTITUTE   FOR    HARA-KARI. 

But  there  is  a  limit  to  the  manager's  orientalism.  In  spite 
of  kimono,  tabi,  hibachi,  futon,  tobako-bon  and  other  Japan- 
ese surroundings,  he  is  not  tempted  in  the  slightest  degree 
to  commit  hara-kiri  or  suicide  after  the  national  method  bv 


104 

disembowelment  in  resentment  of  the  day's  insults.  But, 
instead,  he  reserves  to  himself  the  occidental  right  of  ex- 
pressing that  resentment  in  vigorous  English  swear  words, 
his  own  language  being  entirely  deficient  in  terms  of  abuse 
and  in  verbal  facilities  for  the  purpose  of  profanity.  He 
thus  makes  use  of  the  occidental  safety  valve  for  the  relief 
of  the  emotions,  the  absence  of  which  in  the  case  of  the  Jap- 
anese leaves  apparently  no  resort  but  suicide. 

On  this  particular  day  our  Nikko  manager  soared  above 
all  his  troubles.  Complaints  glided  from  his  unctuous  per- 
sonality like  an  opponent's  grasp  from  the  oiled  body  of  the 
native  wrestler,  without  wrinkling  his  smooth,  inscrutable 
countenance  and  without  subtracting  a  single  beam  of  the 
joyous  enthusiasm  that  danced  in  his  oblique  eyes.  The  fas- 
tidious gentleman  from  Philadelphia,  who,  demanding  bread 
from  his  Japanese  waiter  at  the  beginning  of  his  meal,  was 
offered  not  a  stone,  but  toothpicks,  found  in  the  manager  a 
sympathetic  and  consoling  listener  to  his  tale  of  woe.  So 
did  the  Englishman  who  had  been  advised  by  the  manager 
(the  Englishman's  own  inclinations  tending  in  that  direction) 
to  make  the  Lake  Chuzenji  trip  on  horseback,  and  who  had 
been  soaked  to  the  skin  in  pitiless  rains.  So  did  the  stout 
Australian  to  whom  the  jinrikisha  system  of  rapid  transit 
for  the  lake  trip  had  been  recommended  as  easiest,  and  who 
found  to  his  disgust  that  for  half  a  mile  of  the  way  he  had 
to  leave  his  jinrikisha  and  clamber  on  foot  over  sharp  and 
slippery  rocks.  So  did  the  American  woman  who  had  en- 
dured unresistingly  the  robberies  of  the  hackman  in  the 
cities  of  her  native  land,  from  whom  a  charge  of  $1.50  per 
hour  for  carriage  hire  at  home  would  elicit  no  remonstrance, 
but  who  by  persistent  and  fretful  faultfinding  sorely  tried 
the  manager's  patience  because  her  jinrikisha  man  for  his 
day's  labor  up  and  down  the  steep  hills  of  Nikko  had  charged 
her  20  sen,  or  10  cents  more  than  the  corresponding  charge 
for  the  day  over  the  smooth  and  level  streets  of  Tokio.  But 
the  lady  crying  extortion  over  a  charge  of  42  cents  for  a 
carriage  and  human  horse  for  the  day  was  soothed  as  well 
as  the  others  through  the  tact  and  diplomacy  of  the  man- 
ager. And  to  all  the  complainants,  as  soon  as  the  symp- 
toms of  placation  appeared,  the  manager  announced  with 
bows  and  smiles  and  appropriate  gestures  his  triumph  over 
all  his  rivals,  his  masterpiece  of  planning! 

"Ladies  (or  gentlemen),  for  the  procession  of  to-day,  mr 
arrangements,  the  arrangements  for  the  guests  of  this  hotel, 
are  unsurpassed.  In  the  broad  avenue  opposite  the  Sorinto 


105 

column,  where  everything  can  be  seen,  a  pavilion  for  the  ex- 
clusive use  of  my  guests  has  been  built.  There  will  be  claret 
punch  for  my  guests  and  ice  cream  and  light  refreshments. 
Nothing  like  it  for  the  enjoyment  of  European  and  American 
visitors  has  ever  before  been  known  in  Nikko."  And  off  the 
manager  shot  to  communicate  the  glad  tidings  to  the  next 
member  of  the  army  of  the  discontented. 

IN    HONOR    OF    IEYASU. 

This,  the  3d  of  June,  is  Nikko's  great  day,  noted  for  the 
festival  and  procession  in  honor  of  leyasu,  the  first  Toku- 
gawa  shogun,  who  is  buried  here  as  to  his  mortal  part  and 
deified  and  worshiped  as  a  god,  Toshogu,  in  the  mortuary 
chapel  near  his  tomb. 

leyasu  is  the  most  famous  name  in  Japanese  history.  Sol- 
dier, statesman,  law-giver  of  the  sixteenth  century,  he  wrest- 
ed temporal  power  from  the  Mikado's  feeble  hands,  and 
worshiping  with  the  rest  of  the  nation  that  monarch  as  di- 
vine, he  removed  him  from  degrading  contact  with  mundane 
affairs  and  confined  him  in  the  unapproachable  seclusion  be- 
fitting a  god.  So  great  is  leyasu  that  though  the  dynasty 
which  he  founded  and  which  reigned  for  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  has  been  dethroned  as  a  usurpation  by  the  Mi- 
kado, who  finally  broke  from  his  gilded  prison,  leyasu 
himself  retains  his  glory  and  is  worshiped  as  divine  by  the 
Emperor  himself,  the  descendant  of  the  very  Mikado  whose 
temporal  power  leyasu  usurped. 

In  no  other  respect  did  leyasu  demonstrate  his  greatness 
more  conspicuously  than  in  the  selection  of  a  burial  place. 
•In  a  valley  surrounded  by  Japan's  most  picturesque  moun 
tain  scenery,  in  a  region  held  sacred  by  the  earliest  tradi- 
tions of  the  people,  on  a  hillside  covered  with  groves  of 
majestic  cryptomerias,  there  has  been  built  in  his  honor  the 
richest  architectural  structure  in  all  Japan,  a  marvel  of 
carving  and  of  elaborate  ornamentation  in  gold  and  red 
lacquer. 

The  bronze  Daibutsu  of  Kamakura  is  the  grandest  of  Jap- 
anese monuments,  despite  its  rudimentary  and  irrelevant 
mustache.  The  Higashi  Hongwanji,  the  great  Buddhist 
temple  of  Kioto,  is  impressive  from  its  vastness.  But  in 
varied  and  fantastic  and  beautiful  forms  and  in  richness  of 
decoration  the  Nikko  temples  are  unsurpassed. 

On  this  eventful  morning  the  deified  spirits  of  leyasu. 
Hideyoshi  dnd  Yoritomo  were  accustomed  to  occupy  three 


10G 

sacred  litters  or  palanquins  and  indulge  in  an  excursion  to 
a  neighboring  temple,  attended  in  procession  by  a  consider- 
able section  of  the  population  of  Nikko  in  fantastic  and  re- 
ligious array. 

WAITING    FOR    THE    PARADE. 

While  the  preparations  for  the  procession  were  in  tedious 
progress  the  foreign  visitors  to  Nikko  strolled  through  the 
temple  grounds  and  enjoyed  the  picturesque,  animated  and 
varied  scenes.  Men  and  boys  in  costume,  intending  partid- 
pants  in  the  procession,  were  everywhere.  Here  a  crowd 
of  small  boys  in  brocades  and  embroideries,  and  of  mimic 
soldiers  of  assorted  sizes,  with  long  wooden  spears,  swords, 
bows  with  lacquered  quivers,  brocade  helmets  with  bronze 
ornaments,  and  in  some  instances  with  old  and  costly  coats 
of  mail,  protecting  them  to  the  knees,  formed  a  ring  about 
an  old  man  and  boy,  strolling  performers  of  crude  acrobat- 
ics and  jugglery.  Here  an  important  and  dignified  little 
Japanese  policeman  performed  with  becoming  gravity  his 
serious  functions.  He  wras  arrayed  in  a  white  duck  suit, 
resplendent  with  brass  buttons.  His  soldier  cap  of  blue 
was  ornamented  with  gold  braid.  On  his  hands  were  white 
cotton  gloves,  and  he  bore  a  sword  instead  of  a  club.  On 
his  nose  was  perched  (one  of  the  few  large  things  in  Japan^ 
a  pair  of  spectacles  with  immense  frames,  of  the  kind  asso 
dated  by  illustrators  with  Chinese  sages.  Our  wanderings 
take  us  with  the  crowd  of  spectators,  old  and  young,  past 
many  booths  where  refreshments  are  sold,  especially  the 
Japanese  counterparts  of  the  snow  ball  and  hokey-pokey; 
past  other  rude  stands,  where  young  Japan  buys  gaily- 
colored  paper  birds  that  fly  through  the  air  for  a  consider- 
able distance,  when  properly  manipulated  and  encouraged, 
and  finally  we  stumble  across  the  frail  wooden  structure 
with  bamboo  curtains  for  walls  which  furnishes  a  resting 
place  and  shelter  from  the  sun  to  spectators  of  the  parade 
among  the  guests  of  the  Nikko  hotel. 

The  booming  of  the  great  bell  in  the  Buddhist  temple  just 
opposite  the  pavilion  proclaims  that  the  hour  when  the  pro 
cession  is  due  has  arrived.  But  no  one  expects  it.  The 
custom  of  delay,  which  finds  characteristic  expression  in  the 
Spanish  "manana"  or  tomorrow,  is  as  powerful  in  Ja- 
pan as  in  Spain  or  Mexico.  One  is  told  that  in- 
vitations to  native  dinners  often  specify  a  time  an  hour  be- 
fore the  guest's  attendance  is  really  desired  and  expected. 


107 

While  we  wait,  our  attention  is  again  attracted  to  the  crowd 
of  spectators,  a  source  of  unfailing  interest.  Here  three 
small  boys  in  fancy  dress,  with  feather  headgear,  perform 
feats  of  tumbling,  and  collect  small  coins  from  the  spectators 
for  their  achievements.  A.  priest  hurries  by  with  a  black 
head  dress,  a  white  under  garment  and  a  changeable  green 
silk  robe  of  chameleon  capacity.  The  footgear  of  the  crowd 
includes  the  tabi  alone,  the  tabi  with  straw  sandals,  the 
tabi  with  wooden  clogs,  and  European  or  American  shoes. 
For  headwcar  most  of  the  Japanese  use  nothing  save  thick 
hair  and  a  paper  umbrella.  A  few  heads  display  protecting 
handkerchiefs.  Some  of  the  priests  wear  curiously-shaped 
black  caps,  close-fitting,  with  a  single  black  streamer  rising 
from  each  and  curving  over  almost  to  the  back  of  the  neck. 
Men  credited  with  being  temple  attendants  wear  what  re- 
semble black  fools'  caps.  A  baby  here  and  there  catches 
the  eye  with  a  gorgeously-colored  knitted  turban.  The 
elaborately-dressed  hair  of  some  of  the  women  is  decorated 
with  balls  and  flowers  of  colored  sik,  with  pendant  tassels. 
Here  a  coolie  displays  a  large  bowl-shaped  or  mushroom- 
shaped  hat  woven  of  straw  and  covered  with  cotton  or  left 
uncovered.  The  most  striking  and  incongruous  head-dress 
is  a  derby  hat,  perched  stiffly  on  the  head  of  one  in  Japanese 
costume.  The  Japanese  full  dress  festival  suit  for  men,  of 
which  many  are  visible,  is  gray-blue  or  blue-gray,  with  white 
crests  in  each  lapel  and  on  the  middle  of  the  back.  The  wo- 
men's favorite  costume  for  the  occasion  is  a  soft  blue  or  gray 
kimono,  with  touches  of  red,  and  a  tasteful  brocade  obi  or 
sash.  Young  girls  alone  are  privileged  to  wear  gay,  bright 
colors.  Peculiarities  of  children's  attire  are  colored  aprons, 
adding  to  the  brilliant  effects  of  the  ever-changing  kaleido- 
scopic aspect  of  the  passing  crowd. 

UMBRELLAS    AND   KODAKS. 

Foreign  ribbed  umbrellas  are  strongly  and  strangely  in 
evidence.  The  Japanese  have  learned  to  prefer  them  ex- 
cept as  a  protection  against  rain,  for  which  purpose  they 
think  that  the  wide-spreading  oiled  paper  umbrella  of  their 
own  country  is  more  effective. 

Another  foreign,  yet  interesting  element  of  the  scene,  is 
the  kodakist,  with  eager,  curious,  crafty  look,  inveigling 
Japanese  children  and  adults  into  favorable  lights  and  posi- 
tions for  snap-shots,  and  lavishly  expending  miles  of  film 
upon  an  endless  procession  of  fascinating  photographic  sub- 


108 

jects.  The  kodakist  has  been  warned  away  from  Japan  by 
the  bugbears  of  the  Japanese  duty  on  cameras  and  of  the 
disastrous  effect  upon  the  film  of  the  moist  atmosphere, 
which  has  also  been  credited  with  supplying  insufficient  light 
for  instantaneous  exposures.  But  if  the  kodakist  who  has 
not  progressed  beyond  the  snap-shot  stage  leaves  his  kodak 
at  home  when  he  visits  Japan  he  will  always  regret  doing  so. 
Thousands  of  instantaneous  exposures  have  been  success- 
fully taken  in  Japan,  well  developed  and  printed  by  Japan- 
ese photographers  and  marvelously  colored — all  for  a  price 
less  than  that  charged  for  simple  developing  in  the  United 
States. 

A  diversion  for  the  spectators  is  now  produced  by  a  crowd 
of  men  dressed  in  white  cotton,  who  rush  rapidly  up  the 
street  dragging  a  tree  after  them,  and  who  scatter  its  leaves, 
twigs  and  branches.  In  watching  their  forms  disappear  up 
the  broad  avenue  one  is  impressed  with  the  magnificent 
frame-work  surrounding  the  street  scene,  especially  with  the 
line  trees  through  which  glimpses  are  caught  of  a  mortuary 
chapel,  or  a  temple  or  pagoda,  or  a  curiously-shaped  monu- 
ment, or  a  stone  stairway  leading  to  some  great  building. 
And  upon  every  wall  and  bank  a  cluster  of  Japanese  find  a 
perch,  developing  fine  color  effects  through  a  combination 
of  the  red,  yellow  and  blue  of  the  kimonos  with  gray  and 
moss-green  walls  and  the  background  of  foliage. 

GENIAL   JAPANESE   CROWDS. 

The  short,  brown  men,  women  and  children  who  surge  to 
and  fro  in  front  of  the  pavilion  are  as  interesting  as  their 
costumes  and  as  their  scenic  surroundings.  A  Japanese 
crowd,  polite,  smiling,  considerate,  clean  as  to  the  body 
from  daily  hot  baths,  whatever  the  condition  of  the  clothing, 
lacks  the  ill  odors  and  rowdyism  of  other  crowds  and  sur- 
rounds itself,  comparatively  speaking,  with  an  atmosphere 
of  sweetness,  courtesy  and  urbanity.  When,  in  April,  thou- 
sands upon  thousands  of  the  people  of  Tokio  throng  in 
boats,  in  jinrikishas  or  on  foot  to  view  the  pink  clouds  of 
cherry  blossoms  that  line  for  miles  the  avenue  of  Mukojima 
on  the  river  bank  in  the  suburbs,  there  is  every  excuse  for 
disorder  that  an  uproariously  jolly  crowd  of  excursionists 
can  find.  There  is  sake  drinking  and  there  is  much  un- 
avoidable crowding  and  jostling.  Occasionally  the  women 
and  children  and  curious  foreigners  who  are  enjoying  the 
scene  press  closer  to  the  refreshment  booths  that  skirt  the 


109 

avenue,  in  order  to  permit  «ome  hilarious  picnickers  with 
painted  faces  and  grotesque  costumes  to  cut  a  wider  swath 
through  the  crowd  than  is  permitted  to  those  who  are  not 
thoroughly  exhilarated  with  the  spirit  of  the  occasion  and 
with  the  Japanese  intoxicant,  but  there  is  only  the  faintest 
reflection  of  the  belligerent  rudeness  and  the  omnipresenr 
''drunk  and  disorderly"  nuisance  that  characterize  the  occi- 
dental and  many  oriental  crowds. 

When  thousands  gather  in  some  service  before  the  shrine 
blazing  with  gold  and  lacquer  in  the  Higashi  Hongwanji  at 
Kioto,  the  largest  temple  in  the  empire,  the  same  courteous 
consideration  for  others  is  shown.  While  shaven  priests 
in  rich  vestments  burn  incense,  equally  shaven  widowers, 
announcing  by  their  hairless  heads  their  determination  not  to 
marry  again,  and  other  bald,  old  men,  squat  with  the  crowd 
on  the  temple  floor  side  by  side  with  the  ancient  women 
who  wear  "horn-hiders"  to  conceal  the  evidences  of  Satan 
which  old  Japan  attributes  to  the  sex,  and  add  their  indi- 
vidual contributions  to  the  sea  of  heads  with  spreads,  wave 
on  wave,  in  every  direction.  The  small  coins  which  the 
faithful  throw  on  the  temple  floor  to  be  gathered  up  after 
the  service  by  the  priests  (and  bushels  are  thus  collected 
after  every  service)  are  tossed  indiscriminately  and  unhesi- 
tatingly into  the  crowd,  and  no  attention  whatsoever  is  paid 
by  the  worshipers  to  the  impact  of  the  coins.  A  bald  head 
hit  unintentionally  may  wince,  but  that  is  all.  The  coin 
drops  unheeded  to  the  floor.  A  similar  habit  of  contribution 
in  our  rude  and  barbarous  western  land  would  make  the 
bald  heads  shining  marks  and  targets  for  the  youthful  and 
irreverent,  and  the  bald  heads  themselves,  lacking  oriental 
patience  and  fortitude,  yea,  though  deacons  of  the  strictest 
sect,  would  arise  from  their  devotions  in  ungodly,  passion 
to  eject  with  violence  the  offenders.  Courtesy  covers  a 
multitude  of  peccadilloes.  The  traveler  is  swindled  right 
and  left  in  every  section  of  the  globe,  but  Japanese  cheating 
is  so  pervaded  with  politeness  and  consideration,  with  bows 
and  smiles,  and  complimentary  hissing  intakes  of  the  breath, 
that  ihe  coarser  swindling  of  other  lands  shocks  by  contrast. 
Whether  in  business  or  pleasure,  whether  cheating  or  pic- 
nicking, whether  viewed  individually  or  collectively,  the  Jap- 
anese as  a  rule  is  a  kindly,  genial  being  with  whom  it  is  a 
pleasure  to  come  into  contact. 

While  we  have  been  studying  the  crowd  the  procession 
has  been  forming. 


110 
TOMB    AND    SHRINE    OF    IEYASU. 

Farthest  up  the  mountain  side,  where  the  trees  are  green- 
est and  the  little  mountain  streams  gurgle  sweetest,  and 
save  for  nature's  sounds  the  profoundest  hush  pervades  the 
scene,  lies  the  tomb  of  leyasu,  of  light-colored  bronze,  grand- 
ly impressive  in  its  perfect  simplicity. 

From  the  stone  table  in  front  of  the  tomb,  holding  a  bronze 
stork  candlestick  and  incense  burner  and  a  vase  containing 
artificial  lotus  flowers,  the  tomb's  only  accessory  embellish- 
ments, the  devotee  descends  by  a  long  stone  and  moss-grown 
stairway  to  the  shrine  of  leyasu,  to  which  most  of  the  other 
structures,  scattered  lower  in  successive  terraces  on  the 
hillside,  are  subsidiary,  serving  either  as  approaches  or  for 
other  uses  in  connection  with  the  worship  of  leyasu  as  a 
god.  In  striking  contrast  with  the  stern  simplicity  of  the 
dead  man's  tomb  is  the  rich  and  elaborate  decoration  of  the 
shrine  of  the  never-dying  god  and  of  the  gates  and  other 
approaches  to  it.  Nowhere  else  in  the  world  is  there  a  more 
notable  display  of  minute  wood  carving,  of  delicate  coloring, 
of  lacquer  and  inlaid  work. 

Near  to  the  innermost  gate  which  leads  to  the  main  shrine 
the  devotee  descending  from  the  tomb  would  join  the  proces- 
sion of  June  3,  for  here  stands  the  building  called  Mikoshido, 
which  contains  the  palanquins  or  shrines  or  floats  that  are 
borne  in  this  procession  when  the  deified  spirits  of  leyasu, 
Hideyoshi  and  Yoritomo  occupy  them,  and  so  heavy  are  they 
with  the  weight  of  metal  and  wood  and  departed  greatness 
that  seventy-five  men  are  required  to  carry  them.  N.  Ban, 
an  ambitious  Japanese,  who  has  courageously  written  an 
English  guide  to  Nikko,  and  who,  like  some  others  of  his 
countrymen  who  have  essayed  similar  works  for  other  parts 
of  Japan,  is  a  hard  taskmaster  for  his  English  words,  com- 
pelling, them  often  to  do  double  or  triple  duty  by  serving 
with  new  meanings  in  unaccustomed  connections,  gives  a 
somewhat  different  account  of  this  structure.  He  says  that 
on  the  left  "is  the  building  in  which  the  sacred -cars  of  the 
three  original  gongen  of  Nikko  are  placed  during  the  cere- 
bration (sic)  of  festivals." 

DESCENDING    THE    HILLSIDE    AT    NIKKO. 

Starting  from  this  point,  the  sacred  palanquins  and  the 
accompanying  procession  descend  the  hillside  to  the  open 
court  of  a  temple  almost  on  the  level  of  the  river  and  the 


Ill 

s;it  red  bridge.  This  course  carries  them  first  through  the 
exquisitely  beautiful  gate  called  Yomei-mon,  with  its  white 
carved  columns,  thence  down  a  broad  flight  of  steps  and  past 
the  bell  tower  and  the  perforated  so-called  "moth-eaten" 
bell  on  the  left  and  the  drum  tower  and  the  so-called  Corean 
bronze  lantern  on  the  right.  Here  the  stairway  of  the  Leap- 
ing Lions  is  reached,  and,  having  descended  these,  the  pro- 
«:ession  passes  the  decorated  structure  which  contains  the 
Buddhist  scriptures  in  a  red  lacquered  revolving  book  case, 
and  the  holy  water  cistern,  a  granite  monolith.  Then  it 
inarches  under  a  bronze  torii,  the  curious  archway  of  two 
upright  and  two  horizontal  beams  which  forms  the  charac- 
teristic approach  to  every  Shinto  temple.  Next  it  comes 
to  the  stable  of  the  "sacred  white  pony''  (which  is  no  longer 
white)  and  the  treasure  buildings  opposite. 

On  the  sacred  stable  one  may  note  the  famous  carving  of 
the  monkeys  severally  represented  as  closing  the  ears  and 
mouth  and  shading  the  eyes,  in  respect  to  which  the  facile 
pen  of  N.  Ban  has  written:  "They  are  pumingly  (sic),  called 
first  mizaru  (don't  see  any  wrong);  second,  kikazaru  (don't 
hear  any  wrong);  third,  iwazaru  (don't  talk  any  wrong)."  On 
the  treasure  house,  opposite  the  stable,  is  the  curious  painted 
carving  of  elephants  by  the  famous  left-handed  artist,  Hi- 
dari  Jingoro,  concerning  which  N.  Ban,  with  easy  control 
of  English,  remarks:  "It  will  be  noticed  that  the  joints  of 
the  hind  legs  are  represented  as  bent  in  the  weary  direc- 
tion/' The  procession's  course  now  carries  it  under  Nio-mon, 
or  gate  of  the  two  kings,  with  its  carvings  of  lions,  unicorns, 
tigers,  elephants  and  certain  concededly  fabulous 
beasts,  though  all  of  the  carved  animals  above  enu- 
merated are  in  reality  fabulous,  since  they  resemble 
nothing  in  nature,  Japan  at  the  time  of  their  crea- 
tion by  the  carver  possessing  none  of  them  alive  to  serve  as 
models.  The  procession  sweeps  down  the  broad  stairway 
which  rises  to  the  Nio-mon,  passes  the  shoe-removing  station 
at  its  foot,  a  wooden  structure  where  every  one  must  lay 
aside  his  shoes  before  proceeding  through  the  gate  of  the 
two  kings  into  the  sacred  inner  precincts  of  the  deified  ley- 
asu;  passes  the  five-storied  pagoda  with  its  graceful  lines 
and  attractive  red  coloring,  thence  under  the  great  granite 
torii  presented  by  the  Prince  of  Chikuzen. 

As  the  procession  begins  to  descend  the  stone  stairway 
leading  from  this  torii  it  becomes  visible  to  the  patiently- 
waiting  crowd  in  and  about  the  hotel  booth,  who  have  long 
been  straining  their  eyes  for  this  view,  having  exhaustively 


112 

inspected  the  entrance  to  the  hall  of  the  Three  Buddhas,  just 
opposite,  and  studied  every  line  of  the  Sorinto  or  evil-avert- 
ing monument,  a  black,  cylindrical  copper  column,  forty-two 
feet  high,  which  guards  this  entrance. 

HERE    COMES    THE    PARADE. 

To  the  spectator  from  this  point  looking  up  the  broad  ave- 
nue lined  with  cryptomerias  the  procession  appears  as  a  line 
of  blue  on  one  side  and  a  line  of  pink  on  the  other,  followed 
by  a  confused  mass  of  yellow  and  white.  The  blue  line  re- 
solves itself  into  a  file  of  men  with  spears,  swords,  brocaded 
helmets  and  vestments  of  blue  or  green,  the  pink  line  is 
composed  of  men  similarly  armed,  wearing  a  reddish  over- 
dress. There  are  perhaps  seventy-five  in  each  file.  Then 
comes  a  grotesquely  masked  figure  in  a  green  kimono,  bran- 
dishing a  spear  and  followed  by  two  mimic  tigers  with  fierce 
wooden  heads  decorated  with  red  lacquer,  and  with  gold  and 
brocade  bodies.  Three  men,  concealed  under  the  brocade, 
furnish  legs  and  motive  power  to  each  beast.  A  band  of 
musicians  follow  with  flute  and  drum,  whose  colors  are 
black  and  yellow,  accompanied  by  the  six  sacred  Kagura 
dancers  with  bells  and  fans,  a  white  handkerchief  head- 
dress, a  white  waist  over  a  brocaded  skirt,  and  a  brocade 
obi  or  sash.  These  are  the  damsels  of  varied  ages  who,  for 
a  consideration,  offered  to  the  gods  and  tossed  in  front  of 
them  on  their  platform  near  the  shrine  of  leyasu,  go  through 
a  form  of  posturing  in  the  god's  honor,  called  the  Kagura 
dance,  that  is  as  little  like  a  dance  as  the  classic,  sacred  No 
dance,  which  is  freely  admitted  by  every  one  who  has  seen 
it  to  be  no  dance  at  all.  Now  appear  six  priests  in  white 
robes  with  black  headdresses,  each  mounted  on  a  sacred 
pony.  The  saddles  are  in  some  cases  of  tiger  skin,  and  all 
are  gay  in  color.  Each  pony  is  led  by  two  coolies  in  white 
and  followed  by  a  banner  bearer. 

A  real,  live,  modern  dog  now  gives  a  flavor  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  to  the  procession. 

The  soldiers  of  old  are  upon  us,  first  a  hundred  of  two- 
sworded  men,  dressed  in  blue,  carrying  on  their  shoulders 
antique  guns  (warranted  not  to  fire)  in  red  cloth  coverings; 
next  perhaps  another  hundred  with  long  bows  and  quivers 
of  arrows  at  their  backs,  a  like  number  with  very  long 
spears,  and  then  a  mailed  host  of  perhaps  two  hundred, 
wearing  two  swords,  brass  and  gold-lacquered  helmets, 
shoulder  pieces  and  body  protection  of  mail,  very  impres- 


113 

sive  ;is  tar  <lu\vn  as  the  knees,  but  below  the  m:iil  appear 
legs  clad  in  stripe<l  suits  of  cotton  and  bare  OP  straw-san 
da  led  feet. 

Next  comes  a  group  of  children  in  brocade  attire  with  ar 
'ilicial  (lowers  in  profusion  for  head  dresses,  and  bearing  in 
hand  such  effigies  as  that  of  the  fish. 

Then  follow  footmen  in  red,  wearing  grotesque  masks; 
footmen  in  yellow,  with  tall  wooden  banners;  more  horse 
Mini  and  their  attendants,  perhaps  twenty,  and  empty  black 
lacquer  litters  with  brocaded  banners  and  many-colored 
streamers  Moating  from  them.  Each  is  carried  by  four  bear 
ei  s.  The  black  lacquer  pole  which  rises  from  the  center  of 
the  litter  and  from  which  the  banner  floats  terminates  ar 
the  top  in  a  bronze  ornament,  often  elaborately  worked,  and 
in  most  cases  taking  the  shape  of  the  Tokugawa  crest,  that 
of  the  family  of  leyasu. 

A  smaller  litter  incloses  a  great  drum,  which  is  borne  by 
four  men  and  beaten  constantly  by  a  fifth.  More  footmen 
come  into  view  with  swords,  tall  black  caps  and  blue,  white 
and  red  kimonos,  and  then  appears  the  full  band  of  the  pro- 
cession, fifers  and  drummers  in  brilliant  brocades. 

Many  men  now  march  by  bearing  in  their  hands  repre- 
sentations of  hunting  birds  in  wood  or  plaster. 

Lastly  come  the  three  sacred  cars,  upon  which  patters 
constantly  a  shower  of  cash  contributed  by  spectators,  each 
surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  eager  bearers  in  white  robes  and 
black  raps  and  each  richly  decorated  and  resplendent 
in  gold  lacquer,  while  three  high  priests  on  sacred  ponies 
bring  up  the  rear. 

The  procession,  after  passing  the  hotel  booths  descends 
rhe  hill,  first  by  the  broad,  smooth  avenue  already  described. 
and  tlu-n  by  the  stony  road  which  leads  to  the  sacred  bridge. 
Hut  before  the  river  ?s  reached  the  procession  turns  to  the  left 
in  order  to  descend  to  the  temple,  where  the  palanquins  are 
deposited  until  all  the  offerings  have  been  made  and  the 
tedious  services  have  been  completed.  Then  the  procession 
reverses  its  route  and  starts  on  the  return  of  the  sacred  pa 
lanqiiins  to  their  accustomed  resting  place.  The  return 
trip,  though  uphill,  is  made  at  a  much  livelier  gait  than  tin- 
descent,  and  in  comparison  with  its  tortoise  movements 
earlier  in  the  day  the  parade  in  the  afternoon  shows  much 
of  the  hustling  animation  of  mourners  returning  from  a 
funeral. 

At  this  time  it  resembled  somewhat  in  gait  a  religious 
piocession  of  the  Inari  temple  that  T  saw  at  Kioto,  in  which 


114 

the  rich  paliinquins  were  borne  quickly  along  by  a  host  of 
half-naked  men  and  boys,  who  interrupted  their  march  only 
to  dance  and  sing  and  wave  their  hands,  drunk  with  re- 
ligious enthusiasm  and  sake.  They  seemed  a  jolly,  pleasing 
crowd,  but  just  before  reaching  us  they  had  contested  the 
right  of  way  with  a  trolley  car,  and  the  old  overcoming  the 
»ie\\ .  had  overturned  the  sacrilegious  vehicle  that  interrupted 
the  procession  of  the  gods  and  several  of  the  passengers  and 
bvstanders  were  crushed  under  the  car. 


JAPANESE  JINGOISM. 


Boy's  Holiday  Teaches  a  Soldier's  Love  of  Country  - 
Patriotism  Is  Religion  —  Lilliputians  in  Material 
Things,  Giants  in  National  Spirit  — The  Sign  of  the 
Carp. 

[Editorial  correspondence  of  the  Evening  Star,  February  12,  1898.] 

A  foreign  visitor  to  Xikko  in  the  first  week  of  June,  wan- 
(h-ring  down  the  village's  single  street,  lined  on  both  sides 
with  little  shops  where  the  local  specialties  of  carved  wood 
and  furs  and  various  curios  are  sold,  notes  the  evidences  of 
one  of  the  most  widely-celebrated  and  most  popular  of  Jap- 
anese anniversaries. 

From  many  a  house  or  garden  tall  bamboo  poles  rise  in 
i  he  air  from  which  float  immense  paper  carp,  so  arranged 
with  strings  fastened  inside  the  head  that  their  open  mouths 
catch  the  air  and  they  expand  and  move  in  a  very  life-like 
fashion.  In  some  instances  a  lighter  piece  of  bamboo  ter- 
minating in  a  broom  shape  is  attached  to  the  end  of  the  main 
pole.  Or  at  its  top  is  a  ball  or  fez-shaped  object.  Banners 
often  hang  from  bamboo  arms  of  the  same  pole,  sometimes 
so  large  that  they  dwarf  the  carp,  displaying  ferocious  fig- 
ures of  fighting  men,  generally  in  black  and  white,  sometimes 
in  colors.  Occasionally  the  pole  blossoms  out  in  ten  or  a 
do/m  drooping  twigs,  long  slender  sticks  issuing  on  every 
side  at  the  same  height,  and  terminating  in  small  balls,  ap- 
parently of  metal. 

These  are  the  emblems  of  boys'  day  in  Japan,  when  every 
family  in  which  a  boy  has  been  born  during  the  year  pro- 
claims and  celebrates  the  fact.  The  date  of  this  celebration 
is  the  fifth  day  of  the  fifth  month.  The  old  calendar,  which 
is  still  used  in  the  rural  districts  of  Japan,  is  almost  a  month 
later  than  the  new  calendar,  which  regulates  the  time  in  the 
Japanese  cities. 

\\ 'e  had  thus  the  privilege  of  noting  a  double  celebration 
of  the  day,  in  May  in  Kioto  and  Osaka,  and  in  Xikko  in 
June.  But  the  May  observance  was  comparatively  a  spirit- 
less affair.  There  were  few  of  the  flying  carp  in  either  Kioto 
or  Osika.  The  rainy  weather  discouraged  to  some  extent 


116 

the  exposure  to  the  elements  of  paper  fish,  but  the  custom 
so  far  as  the  carp  are  concerned  seems  to  be  dying  out  in 
the  large  cities  where  modern  and  occidental  ideas  pre- 
vail. 

But  the  swaying  fish  of  many  bright  colors  made  a  fine 
display  in  Nikko,  hanging  sometimes  in  bunches  of  half  a 
dozen  over  prolific  households,  one  carp  for  each  boy  in  the 
family,  whether  born  during  the  year  or  earlier. 

Our  idea  of  the  carp  is  of  a  sluggish  fish,  a  frequenter  by 
choice  of  still  and  muddy  water,  or  as  in  China,  the  contented 
inhabitant  of  a  tub.  fed  on  food-leavings  like  the  family  pig 
of  other  lands.  But  in  Japan  the  fish  is  typical  of  intense 
vitality,  and  is  famous  for  the  power  and  perseverance 
with  which  it  swims  against  the  current  and  surmounts 
waterfalls.  Thus  its  paper  counterpart  symbolizes  the 
hopes  of  the  Japanese  that  their  boys  may,  like  the  carp, 
stem  all  adverse  currents,  leap  over  the  most  formidable 
obstacles  and  live  long  and  prosper. 

NO    GLORIFICATION   FOR    THE    GIRL 

The  girls  also  have  a  holiday,  the  3d  of  March,  when  the 
feast  of  dolls  is  celebrated.  The  boys'  day  glorifies  the  birth 
of  a  man  into  the  world.  The  girl  enjoys  no  such  glorifica- 
tion. The  girl's  emblem  is  like  the  Japanese  woman  her- 
self, a  doll,  a  toy,  a  plaything.  The  boy's  is  the  symbol  of 
all  that  is  powerful  and  masterful  and  enterprising. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Japanese  do  not  hide  their 
women  in  jealous  oriental  seclusion,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  occidental  ideas  of  costumes  and  manners  have  been  per- 
mitted to  creep  in  among  them,  there  still  lurks  under  the 
modern  varnish  the  old  decayed  conviction  of  the  inferiority 
and  degradation  of 'women  that  is  taught  both  in  the  Bud- 
dhism and  the  Confucianism  which  influence  the  national 
thought. 

The  ineradicable  oriental  view  of  the  differences  between 
the  sexes  from  the  tenderest  age  is  reflected  in  the  ancient 
Chinese  ode,  supposed  to  have  been  selected  by  Confucius 
himself,  which  commemorates  the  building  of  a  new  palace 
for  King  Swan,  825  B.  C.: 

"And  it  shall  be  whenever  sons  are  born 
Those  shall  be  laid  on  beds  to  sleep  and  rest; 
In  loose  long  robes  they  also  shall  be  dressed, 


117 

And  sceptrelets  be  given  them  for  toys, 
And  when  they  cry  what  music  in  the  noise! 
Once  these  shall  don  the  scarlet  aprons  grand 
And  be  the  kings  and  princes  of  the  land. 

"And  it  shall  be  when  daughters  are  born 
These  shall  be  laid  to  sleep  upon  the  ground, 
In  swaddling  bands  their  bodies  shall  be  bound, 
And  pots  shall  be  their  playthings.     'Twill  belong 
To  these  to  meddle  not  with  right  or  wrong; 
To  mind  alone  the  household  drinks  and  food 
And  cause  their  parents  no  solicitude." 

The  glorification  of  the  boy  is  complete  when  the  poet 
goes  into  raptures  over  the  music  of  his  cry.  But  these  very 
raptures  show  the  fallacy  of  the  notion  entertained  and  ex- 
pressed by  many  travelers  that  Chinese  and  Japanese  babies 
never  cry.  If  the  boy  in  his  comfortable  robes  on  the  bed 
and  in  spite  of  having  a  sceptrelet  as  a  plaything  cries,  even 
though  he  cries  musically,  surely  the  girl  in  tight  swaddling 
band  tossed  on  the  ground  among  the  pots  will  bawl  most 
vigorously,  careless  that  no  poet  finds  music  in  her  cry.  It 
appears  then  that  the  brown  babies  were  in  825  B.  C.  exer- 
cising this  inalienable  right  of  universal  babydom,  and  I 
doubt  whether  they  have  since  surrendered  this  right. 

JAPANESE    BABIES    DO    CRY. 

Unquestionably  the  Japanese  babies  are  wonderfully  pa- 
tient, well  regulated  and  well  behaved.  But  I  heard  a  baby 
crying  lustily  on  my  first  day  in  Japan.  I  saw  a  Japanese 
infant  despotically  ruling  his  accompanying  family  of  wor- 
shipers, from  grandmother  down,  in  a  first-class  railway 
carriage  between  Tokio  and  Kioto,  and  the  boo-hoo  was  one 
of  the  most  effective  weapons  of  his  tyranny.  If  the  Jap- 
anese babies  were  ever  non-crying  they  have  now  adopted 
modern  notions  and  customs  on  the  subject  in  humble  imi- 
tation of  their  parents  and  have  changed  all  that.  The  non- 
crying  baby,  like  the  scentless  flowers  and  the  non-singing 
birds  described  by  veracious  travelers,  has  largely  disap- 
peared from  Japan,  and  if  present  appearances  are  reliable 
will  soon  be  as  extinct  as  the  dodo. 

Altogether,  the  Japanese  babies  are  most  attractive.  In 
general  make-up  with  shaven  crowns,  variegated  by  hair 
tufts,  they  look  strikingly  like  the  Japanese  dolls  sold  in 


118 

America.  Fastened  to  the  back  of  mother  or  elder  sister 
or  brother  they  bury  their  noses  in  the  back  of  the  neck  of 
their  carrier  and  inspect  the  world  with  black  and  bead-like 
eyes.  In  Osaka  I  saw  one  favored  infant  who  was  strapped 
10  his  carrier's  back  with  his  face  turned  outward,  apparent- 
ly a  more  healthful  and  reasonable  fashion. 

Groups  of  children,  with  their  bright-colored  dresses,  their 
oftentimes  sweet  voices  and  pleasing  manners,  are  the  de- 
light of  the  foreign  visitors,  and  especially  of  the  amateur 
photographer. 

Here  the  master  of  a  dancing  school  leads  his  pupils,  a 
score  or  more  of  little  girls,  out  for  a  vacation  romp  in 
Shiba  Park,  in  Tokio.  The  hair  of  Miss  Flora  McFlimsey 
was  never  more  elaborately  dressed  than  that  of  these  chil- 
dren, and  as  to  bright  colors  in  attire,  in  kimono,  obi  and  all 
the  rest,  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one 
of  these. 

Close  at  hand  are  some  smaller  children,  apparently  of  a 
roving  disposition,  equipped  each  with  a  charm  bag  to  ward 
off  accidents,  and  a  metal  bag  containing  the  name  and  ad- 
dress of  the  prospective  wanderer  to  the  end  that  he  may 
be  returned  to  his  home  if  he  is  lost. 

Here  comes  rushing  along  an  avenue  of  the  park  a  whole 
school  of  boys  out  for  the  breathing  spell  of  a  recess.  They 
cut  up  pranks,  and  laugh,  and  quarrel,  and  testify  in  every 
way  to  an  overflow  of  animal  spirits,  just  as  young  America 
would  disport  himself,  except  for  the  hitter's  disrespect  of  his 
elders. 

But  not  all  the  juvenile  conditions  are  ideal.  A  great 
many  of  the  heads  of  children  are  scabby  from  eczema,  pro- 
duced probably  by  shaving  with  dull  and  dirty  razors,  to 
which  the  youngster's  head  is  subjected  until  the  age  of  five 
or  six  years  is  reached.  No  effort  is  made  to  cure  this  erup- 
tion because,  it  is  explained,  a  superstition  attributes  a  dis- 
ease-averting and  health-giving  influence  in  later  life  to  the 
youthful  scabby  head.  Evidentl}7  there  is  also  a  popular 
superstition  which  ascribes  some  physical  ill,  present  or  fu 
ture,  to  the  blowing  of  an  infant's  nose,  however  much  it 
may  need  this  delicate  attention.  Dainty  handkerchiefs  of 
children's  sizes  are  made  by  the  thousand  in  Japan,  but 
they  are  used,  it  would  seem,  exclusively  for  export  pur- 
poses. 

In  addition  to  the  outward  display  of  carp  and  banners 
Moating  over  many  a  house  there  was  an  indoors  exhibit  in 
Xikko  on  the  bov's  holidav,  which  was  in  accord  with  the 


119 

symbolism  of  the  carp,  as  the  type  of  force,  power,  ihe  over- 
comer  of  difficulties.  Images  of  generals  on  horseback  and 
soldiers  on  foot,  wrestlers,  fighters  of  every  grade  and  de- 
scription, war  flags  and  banners,  toy  suits  of  armor,  swords, 
bows  and  arrow's,  and  the  other  implements  of  ancient  war, 
which  have  filled  the  toy  shops  for  weeks,  are  now  displayed 
by  the  proud  parents  of  the  boy  in  their  home. 

FIRST    LESSON    IN    JINGOISM. 

The  most  conspicuous  of  these  exhibits  are  large,  set 
pieces,  representing  warlike  subjects  such  as  Hideyoshi  on 
liis  throne  and  the  Empress  Jingo  and  her  councilors. 

This  mythical  empress  is  a  model  for  the  boys  in  spite 
of  her  sex  and  figures  conspicuously  as  the  warrior  woman 
among  the  images  of  the  5th  of  May,  that  are  used  as  object 
lessons  to  teach  the  young  the  deeds  of  heroes,  and  to  pro- 
nioie  patriotism. 

The  Empress  Jingo,  the  conqueror  of  Corea  and  the  mother 
nl  Hachiman,  the  god  of  war,  may  be  viewed  as  typical  of 
the  national  patriotic  sentiment  and  of  the  warlike  spirit  of 
territorial  extension.  Under  Shintoism,  the  nominal  na- 
tional religion,  eniperors  and  empresses,  Jingo  among  them, 
are  deified  and  worshiped.  Thus  in  Japan,  at  least,  Jingo- 
ism equals  Shintoism  equals  Patriotism," and  every  "Jap"  is 
a  Jingo. 

In  respect  to  things  material  and  visible  Japan  is  a  reali- 
zation of  the  imagfnary  land  of  Lilliput,  described  by  the 
veracious  Gulliver.  In  national  spirit  and  aspiration  Japan 
is  of  Brobdingnagian  proportions. 

Kvery  visitor  to  Japan  testifies  to  the  accuracy  of  the  first 
of  these  statements.  The  smallness  of  things  Japanese  is 
the  foreigner's  most  vivid  impression,  from  his  first  to  his 
last  glimpse  of  the  little  brown  men  and  women  and  their 
proportionately  tiny  appurtenances  and  belongings.  On 
landing  at  Yokohama  he  is  placed  in  a  jinrikisha  or  enlarged 
baby  carriage,  and  is  hauled  to  the  hotel  by  a  bare-headed 
and  bare-legged  male  nurse,  while  he  instinctively  feels  for 
his  rattle  and  nursing  bottle.  Since  the  baby  carriage  is 
used  by  men,  the  doll's  carriage  falls  to  the  infants,  and  in 
the  few  cases  where  the  Egyptian  and  Mexican  method  of 
transporting  the  baby  fastened  to  the  mothers  or  older  sis- 
ter's back  is  not  employed,  a  vehicle  is  utilized  which  might 
have  been  made  from  Cinderella's  pumpkin  without  enlarge- 
ment by  the  fairy  god-mother.  I  saw  one  of  these  riny  baby/ 


120 

carriages  in  Osaka,  and  it  was  among  the  most  curious  of 
the  many  curiosities  of  street  scenes  in  Japan.  Leaving 
Yokohama  to  go  to  Tokio,  the  great  modern  capital,  or  Kioto, 
the  ancient  and  venerated  city,  the  foreigner  enters  a  dwarf 
car  on  a  narrow-gauge  track  and  is  pulled  by  a  miniature 
engine  over  lilliputian  bridges  and  through  lilliputian  tun- 
nels. Wherever  he  visits  he  finds  narrow  streets,  small 
frail  houses,  with  tiny  rooms  and  furnishings.  As  the 
streets  are  alleys,  so  the  horses  are  ponies.  Going  into  the 
country  he  finds  that  the  farms  are  gardens  of  minute  pro 
portions,  in  which  rice  and  tea  and  grain  are  cultivated  with 
the  microscopic  attention  bestowed,  by  the  European  gar- 
dener upon  his  choicest  plants.  The  little  "Jap,"  with  his 
diminutive  farm  and  his  toy  house,  eats  from  a  table  which 
is  a  lacquer  tray,  from  a  bowl  which  is  a  cup,  and  from  a 
cup  which  is  as  a  thimble,  and  smokes  a  pipe  which  allows 
him  but  three  whiffs  before  it  needs  refilling.  In  gardening 
his  proudest  achievement  is  to  dwarf  a  maple  or  pine  tree, 
so  that,  though  a  century  old,  it  is  only  a  foot  high,  and  to 
confine  the  veteran  of  the  forest  in  a  flower  pot.  The  same 
tendency  is  noticeable  in  the  arts,  in  minute  ivory  and  wood 
carvings,  in  microscopic  cloisonne  work,  and  in  devotion 
to  the  small  and  delicate  in  painting  upon  a  great  variety 
of  materials. 

MOTHER    GOOSE    IN    JAPAN. 

In  short,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Mother  Goose,  in  the 
course  of  her  world-wide  wanderings  on  her  broom,  had  paid 
a  flying  visit  to  Japan,  and  had  that  miniature  country  and 
people  in  mind  when  she  wrote : 

"There  was  a  little  man  and  he  had  a  little  wife, 
Who  cut  their  little  loaf  with  a  sharp  but  tiny  knife, 
She  had  a  little  cat  which  chased  a  little  mouse, 
And  they  all  lived  together  in  a  very  little  house." 

The  quaint  smallness  of  things  Japanese  is  most  keenly 
appreciated  through  contrast  by  an  American,  fresh  from 
the  magnificent  distances  and  vast  expanses  of  the  land  of  so 
many  "greatest  things  on  earth,"  from  grand  canons  and 
mammoth  caves  to  monuments  and  waterfalls,  geysers  and 
machinery. 

But,  as  I  have  already  indicated,  if  Japan  is  the  vest- 
pocket  edition  of  a  nation  in  material  things,  in  spirit  and 


121 

ambition  it  is  a  giant  unabridged.  The  Japanese  people. 
from  the  coolie,  with  his  loin  cloth  and  straw  sandals,  to 
the  statesman,  air  full  of  that  devotion  to  the  national  idea, 
that  pride  of  country,  that  unbounded  faith  in  the  national 
future,  of  which  the  combination  is  the  world  over  described 
at  home  as  intense  patriotism  and  abroad  as  national  "cocki- 
ness" and  bumptious  conceit.  The  Japanese  statesmen  are 
already  in  imagination  inheriting  the  power  now  wielded  by 
the  effete  nations  of  Europe,  whose  speedy  exhaustion  they 
predict 

As  a  sample  specimen,  listen  to  the  words  of  Count  Oku- 
ma,  recently  the  minister  of  foreign  affairs  and  the  strong 
man  of  the  late  administration: 

"The  European  powers  are  already  showing  symptoms  of 
decay,  and  the  next  century  will  see  their  constitutions  shat- 
tered and  their  empires  in  ruins.  Even  if  this  should  not 
quite  happen,  their  resources  will  have  become  exhausted 
in  unsuccessful  attempts  at  colonization.  Therefore  who  is 
tit  to  be  their  proper  successors  if  not  ourselves?  What 
nation,  except  Germany,  France,  Russia,  Austria  and  Italy, 
can  put  L'00,000  men  into  the  field  inside  of  a  month?  As  to 
intellectual  power,  the  Japanese  mind  is  in  every  way  equal 
to  the  European  mind.  It  is  true,  the  Japanese  are  small 
of  stature,  but  the  superiority  of  the  body  depends  more  on 
its  constitution  than  on  its  size.  If  treaty  revision  were 
completed,  and  Japan  completely  victorious  over  China,  we 
should  become  one  of  the  chief  powers  of  the  world,  and  no 
power  could  engage  in  any  movement  without  first  consult- 
ing us.  Japan  could  then  enter  into  competition  with  Eu- 
rope as  the  representative  of  the  oriental  races." 

The  Japanese  statesmen,  headed  by  Marquis  Ito,  who, 
after  a  period  of  retirement  from  power,  is  again  prime  min- 
ister, played  upon  this  patriotic  sentiment  in  precipitating 
war  with  China.  It  is  a  common  device  of  rulers  to  pick  a 
quarrel  with  the  foreigner  in  order  to  solidify  the  home  peo- 
ple. But  there  was  never  a  more  successful  resort  to  it 
than  in  the  case  of  Japan.  Her  government  was  beset  by 
domestic  dissensions  and  in  sore  straits.  Three  successive 
hostile  majorities  had  appeared  against  it  in  the  diet.  From 
the  moment  thnt  war  was  declared  every  opponent  and  every 
critic  disappeared.  All  Japan  advanced,  and  struck  as  one 
man,  and  the  loose-jointed,  disorganized,  anaemic  giant 
China  went  down  before  it  at  the  first  blow. 

The  spirit  which  made  Japan  formidable  against  China 
was  intensified  h\  the  result  of  the  struggle.  And  it  is  con- 


l-2'2 

s pinions  everywhere  in  Japan  to-day  and  is  carefully  fost- 
ered by  the  government. 

JAPANESE    PATRIOTISM. 

Said  Count  Okuma  in  a  speech  before  the  Oriental  Asso- 
ciation of  Japan:  '^Undoubtedly  Japan  is  a  comparatively 
poor  country,  but  the  abounding  patriotism  of  her  subject* 
in  spite  of  her  poverty  is  unique.  Foreigners  were  therefore 
astonished  at  the  love  of  country  shown  by  the  people  and 
at  the  vast  sums  of  money  placed  at  the  disposition  of  the 
government,  which  permitted  the  prosecution  of  the  war  to 
a  successful  conclusion  without  having  recourse  to  foreign 
<  apiial. 

"If,  however,  those  countries  should  injure  Japan's  pres- 
tige, rights  or  interests,  T  need  hardly  affirm  that  the  pa- 
triotism of  the  40,000,000  Japanese  would,  as  I  have  already 
said,  burst  out  like  a  volcanic  eruption." 

Every  influence  tends  to  keep  the  patriotic  spirit  at  white 
heat.  Not  only  the  adults  are  drilling  all  over  Japan,  but 
the  children  also.  In  the  schools  the  pupils  bow  with  rever- 
ence to  the  portrait  of  the  emperor  in  entering  and  leaving 
the  room,  and  love  of  country  is  taught  both  in  their  secular 
and  their  religious  education. 

In  the  grounds  connected  with  the  temple  of  Hirano  'Jinja 
in  Kioto  I  noticed  some  school  children  at  their  recess  re- 
creation. They  had  divided  into  two  bands,  armed  with 
wooden  swords  and  guns,  each  army  with  its  standard.  One 
lay  in  ambush  for  the  other,  and  the  surprised  army  re- 
treated until  a  little  hill  was  reached,  on  top  of  which  a 
stand  was  made,  and  the  pursuers  beaten  back.  Young 
America  could  not  have  entered  into  mimic  warfare  with 
greater  spirit. 

Sliintoisiu,  the  original  faith  and  the  present  state  re- 
ligion of  Japan,  is  practically  patriotism  and  not  much  else. 
Its  foundation  is  the  worship  of  ancestors,  thence  of  the 
emperor,  as  the  heaven-born  father  of  his  people.  Devotion 
to  the  ruler  easily  becomes  love  of  the  fatherland  which  is 
ruled.  Patriotic  loyalty  to  the  emperor  is  religion,  and  in 
this  kind  of  religion  there  are  many  fanatics. 

The  worship  of  one's  own  ancestors,  derived  from  China, 
has  been  broadened  in  Japan  into  the  worship  of  the  hero 
ancestors  of  other  men,  who,  deified  after  death,  constitute 
the  Shinto  pantheon  with  its  membership  of  millions.  The 
famous  soldiers  and  other  heroes  are  honored  and  worshiped 


L23 

in    shrines   erected   to    their    memory.     Religion    lights   the 
torch  of  patriotism. 

Osaka,  which  as  .Japan's  great  manufacinring  city  is  the 
center  of  the  industrial  war  which  the  empire  is  to  wage 
against  Kurope  and  America,  is  also  an  important  military 
center,  and  in  thai  city  this  spring  I  attended  a  Shinto 
service  which  showed  clearly  the  manner  in  which  all  the  in 
.'lucnccs  of  state  and  church  unite  to  foster  loyalty  to  the 
emperor  and  love  of  country. 

WORSHIP   FOR    DEAD    SOLDIERS. 

Close  to  the  one  large  hotel  for  foreigners  in  Osaka  is  a 
monument  to  certain  soldiers  who  fell  in  battle.  A  Shinto 
shrine  is  connected  with  the  monument,  and  on  the  6th  day 
of  May  the  annual  military  service  was  held  there  in  honor 
of  the  heroes,  attended  by  all  the  soldiers  in  the  district. 
officers  and  men,  infantry  and  cavalry,  and  by  a  multitude 
of  curious  visitors  from  civil  life.  On  one  side  of  the  inclo- 
sure,  in  front  of  the  shrine,  stood  the  officers  in  uniform, 
from  seventy-five  to  a  hundred  in  number.  At  their  feet,  sit- 
ting on  mats,  were  a  hundred  or  more  of  sons  of  the  officers. 
in  semi-military  dress.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  inclosnre 
were  a  brass  band  and  a  small  group  of  spectators.  Out- 
side, in  the  adjacent  tea  house,  and  in  intersecting  streets, 
the  people  were  packed  and  jammed,  constantly  harassed, 
shoved  and  pushed  and  scolded  by  the  important  little 
Jananese  soldiers.  Back  of  the  monument  glimpses 
could  be  had  of  the  arms  or  uniforms  of  the  thousands  of 
soldiers,  standing  ready  for  the  order  to  march.  First  the 
procession  of  priests  in  white  robes,  with  curious  black 
Headdress  and  black  wooden  shoes,  entered  the  in  closure, 
headed  by  wooden  palanquins  containing  the  offerings. 
Then  the  long  and  rather  tedious  Shinto  service  proceeded. 
The  offerings  of  many  different  articles,  including  fruits 
and  vegetables,  were  passed  from  hand  to  hand,  and  pre- 
sented before  the  shrine.  At  last  the  officers  came  before 
the  monument  in  succession  and  presented  branches  handed 
to  them  by  a  priest.  Then  the  officers  gradually  withdrew, 
and  12,000  soldiers  marched  before  the  monument,  in  small 
bodies,  halted  and  saluted  at  the  word  of  command  and  to 
the  sound  of  trumpets,  and  passed  on  quickly  to  make  room 
for  another  detachment.  After  several  hours  of  infantry 
procession,  the  cavalry  passed  and  saluted  in  similar  fashion. 
Neither  young  nor  old  could  fail  to  be  impressed  by  the 


124 

spiM tacle  of  honor,  even  worship,  offered  to  those  who  had 
died  in  the  service  of  their  country,  and  to  be  inspired  with 
the  patriotic  desire  to  emulate  their  example. 

The  national  military  spirit  is  fostered  not  only  in  school 
and  in  church,  so  to  speak,  but  in  the  very  holidays  and  an- 
niversary days  of  the  boys.  As  I  have  already  noted  the 
boys'  day  on  the  5th  of  May  is  permeated  with  Jingoism. 
Shiutoisiu,  patriotism. 

Japan's  national  ambition  is  thus  gigantic.  Will  she  be 
able  to  realize  a  fraction  of  her  dreams? 

A    VISION    OF   CONQUEST. 

Her  cry  is  "Asia  for  the  Asiatics,"  meaning  by  the  Asiat- 
ics the  Japanese.  She  is  spending  the  Chinese  indemnity 
and  much  tax  money  out  of  the  scanty  resources  of  her  own 
people  in  army  and  navy  development  to  meet,  resist  and,  if 
possible,  overcome  Russia  in  Asia  before  the  Siberian  rail- 
road connects  the  two  Russias,  and  gives  to  the  government 
at  St.  Petersburg  power  of  concentrating  troops,  which 
would  prove  irresistible.  She  has  a  well-disciplined  and  ad- 
mirably equipped  army  of  considerably  over  200,000  men, 
more  than  double  the  Russian  force  laboriously  collected 
at  Vladivostok.  Her  navy,  already  imposing,  will  before 
long  be  among  the  strongest  five  in  the  world,  surpassing 
the  United  States  in  the  race  unless  our  gait  is  faster  than  at 
present.  Her  people  have  surreptitiously  aided  the  insur- 
gents in  the  Philippine  Islands,  now  the  property  of  Spain, 
upon  which  Japan  has  for  some  time  cast  covetous  eyes. 
She  planned  a  peaceful  conquest  by  colonization  of  the  Ha- 
waiian Islands,  and  nothing  but  annexation  by  the  United 
States  is  certain  to  baffle  her  well-conceived  design.  In 
trade,  as  well  as  in  arms,  she  aspires  not  only  to  lead  in 
Asia,  but  to  be  among  the  great  powers  of  the  world.  Her 
vast  military  expenditures  have  interfered  sadly  with  na- 
tional industrial  development,  but  the  ambition  to  be  weal- 
thy is  merely  postponed  in  favor  of  the  determination  to  bn 
powerful,  and  not  by  any  means  abandoned. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  admire  the  high  aims  and  courage 
of  this  people,  as  well  as  their  kindliness,  their  ingenuity, 
their  manual  dexterity  and  their  artistic  taste. 

The  dwarf  in  material  things  has  expanded  into  the  giant 
like  the  great  pine  at  Karasaki,  a  tree  which  started 
out  to  be  a  dwarfed  pine  with  sprawling  horizontally  grow- 
ing branches  after  the  regular  model,  but  which  escaped 


125 

from  its  would-be  minimizers  two  thousand  years  ago,  and 
is  now  a  magnified  dwarf  pine,  enlarged  five  hundred  times. 

Can  Japan,  so  admirable  in  small  things,  be  equally  ad- 
mirable when  the  dwarf  has  become  the  giant? 

Has  the  Japanese  character  the  adaptability  of  the  ele- 
phant's trunk,  with  its  capacity  of  picking  up  the  smallest 
pin  and  of  performing  the  most  delicate  operations  and  also 
its  power  of  applying  gigantic  force  in  breaking  down  walls 
and  uprooting  trees? 

The  Japanese  has  nothing  more  to  learn,  he  thinks,  in 
either  the  deceptions  or  the  bluffs  and  ultimatums  of  diplo- 
macy. He  believes  that  he  has  discovered  the  secret  of  the 
occidental  powers  in  the  maxims,  "Might  makes  right," 
"Providence  is  on  the  side  with  the  heavier  artillery,"  and 
he  arms  and  drills  himself,  buys  guns  and  warships,  and 
discards  his  foreign  instructors. 

If  the  Aztecs  in  Mexico  had  handled  the  Spaniards  on  the 
Japanese  principle  of  dealing  with  threatening  conquerors 
they  would  have  received  the  invaders  with  reverential  pros- 
trations, and  in  a  comparatively  short  time  they  would  in 
humble  imitation  of  the  visitors  be  wearing  armor,  riding 
horses,  studying  Spanish  and  mastering  the  secrets  of  the 
foreigners'  power;  and  finally,  when  all  was  learned  that 
the  Spanish  had  to  teach,  the  Aztecs  would  have  opposed  to 
them  their  own  weapons  and  their  own  military  methods, 
and  would  have  cast  them  out  like  oranges  sucked  dry. 

Japan  means  to  cut  a  figure  in  history.  Will  a  new  Jingo 
give  birth  for  her  benefit  to  a  modern  god  of  war,  and  an- 
other leyasu  arise  to  lead  to  victory?  Or  will  the  Japanese 
vision  of  glory  collapse,  bubble-like,  at  the  first  hostile  con- 
tact with  a  European  power? 


JAPAN  AND  HAWAII. 


Asiatic  Excitement  over  Our  Proposed  Tariff— Japan 
Speaks  through  Count  Okuma— Hawaiian  Annexa- 
tion and  Our  Duty  on  Tea  and  Silk— Future  of  the 
Far  East. 

[Editorial  correspondence  of  the  Evening  Star.] 

Tokyo,  Japan,  June  8,  1897. 

The  immigration  controversy  between  Hawaii,  which  is 
virtually  under  American  protection,  and  Japan,  the  dis- 
patch of  both  Japanese  and  American  warships  to  Honolulu, 
and  the  Congressional  proposition  to  tax  heavily  under  the 
new  tariff  the  cheap  silk,  tea  and  matting  of  Japan  have 
caused  many  manifestations  of  an ti- American  sentiment  re- 
cently among  certain  classes  of  this  people.  Mischief-mak- 
ers, using  the  native  press,  and  political  agitators,  with  the 
purpose  in  view  of  currying  favor  for  themselves  with  the 
people  and  of  embarrassing  the  existing  Japanese  adminis- 
i  ration,  have  misrepresented  the  facts  and  labored  zealously 
to  inflame  the  popular  prejudices.  For  instance,  our  tariff 
legislation  is  represented  to  be  a  blow  aimed  specifically 
at  Japan,  demonstrating  a  change  of  sentiment  on  our  part 
and  a  present  strong  dislike  and  fear  of  that  nation.  Not 
only  is  Hawaii  pictured  as  defenseless  before  Japan,  but 
i he  Tinted  States  itself  is  represented  to  be,  as  Kudyard 
Kipling  suggests,  temptingly  spankable. 

Another  cause  of  ill-feeling  by  the  Japanese  toward  the 
foreigners  of  the  empire,  including  Americans,  is  the  uncon- 
cealed dread  with  which  the  latter  note  the  approach  of  the 
year  ls!M),  when  the  new  treaties  go  into  effect,  which  abol- 
ish the  consular  courts  and  extend  Japanese  jurisdictioii 
over  all  residents  of  the  empire.  Many  of  the  foreigners  en- 
gaged  in  trade  profess  to  fear  both  loss  of  personal  security 
and  destruction  of  business.  They  point  to  the  various  in- 
dications of  the  popular  belief  that  the  foreigners  are  to  be 
driven  out  of  the  Japanese  trade  and  of  the  increasing  hos- 
tility of  the  people  to  outsiders.  '  They  call  attention  to  the 
recent  action  of  the  diet  of  the  empire  in  passing  a  bounty 


127 

;irl  granting  ;i  sulisidy  to  .Japanese  exporters  of  raw  silk, 
which  they  vii'w  as  a  virtual  rebate  of  the  export  duty  for 
the  ht'iiclii  of  their  .Japanese  competitors  and  a  discrimina- 
tion against  thcrn.  Their  distrust  and  dislike  are  noted  and 
reciprocated  by  the  Japanese. 

For  Americans  to  be  surrounded  by  an  atmosphere  of  hos- 
tility in  .Japan  is  a  novelty.  They  have  heretofore  been  ex- 
cepted  when  the  anli -foreign  cry  was  raised.  Even  now. 
of  course,  the  feeling  against  them  is  confined  to  a  compara- 
tively few  among  the  people,  does  not  extend  seriously  to 
the  thoughtful  and  governing  class  and  is,  perhaps,  tempo 
rarily  fostered  and  exaggerated  for  the  purpose  of  retaining 
for  Japan  as  long  as  possible  some  trade  or  labor-colonizing 
advantages  now  enjoyed,  which,  it  is  perceived,  must  at 
some  time  be  surrendered,  but  of  which  the  surrender  may 
be  postponed. 

INTERVIEWING    COUNT    OKUMA. 

I  obtained  the  government  view  of  the  situation,  or  as 
much  of  that  view  as  the  government  was  willing  to  dis- 
close, in  an  interview  with  Count  Okuma,  the  min- 
ister of  foreign  affairs,  who  is  the  strong  man 
and  dominating  spirit  of  the  present  administra- 
tion. He  played  a  prominent  part  in  the  restora- 
tion of  the  imperial  government  in  1868  and  since 
that  time  has  been  conspicuous  in  Japanese  political  history 
as  a  statesman  and  leader,  whether  in  the  administration 
•  or  in  opposition.  He  was  minister  of  the  treasury  from 
1873  to  1881,  and  once  before  his  present  term  as  minister 
of  foreign  affairs  he  held  the  same  portfolio.  He  is  conse- 
quently a  statesman  of  ripened  experience,  thoroughly  iden- 
tified with  the  new  Japan.  He  has  been  and  is  now  a  strong 
and  uncompromising  advocate  of  the  adoption  by  Japan  of 
modern  foreign  methods.  One  of  the  cries  of  the  leaders 
of  the  revolution  of  1868,  who  overthrew  the  Shoguns.  usur- 
pers of  two  centuries'  standing,  and  restored  to  the  mikado 
i he  temporal  power,  was  the  expulsion  of  the  foreigners 
and  the  return  of  Japan  to  her  previous  condition  of  isola- 
tion. But  the  brainy  men  who  led  this  movement,  when 
once  in  power,  judged  accurately  the  situation  and  changed 
their  views  and  their  policy  with  lightning  rapidity.  They 
welcomed  the  foreigner,  and  for  a  time  sat  at  his  feet  in 
order  to  learn  all  that  he  could  teach. 


128 

THE    FOREIGNERS    MUST    GO. 

But  they  stooped  to  conquer.  They  learned  merely  to 
compete  with  their  teachers  and  with  the  purpose  of  discard- 
ing these  instructors  as  soon  as  they  thought  that  they 
could  do  without  them.  Count  Okuma  in  a  speech  deliv- 
ered not  long  ago  before  the  Oriental  Society  attributed 
the  progress  in  Japan  very  largely  to  foreign  influence,  ex- 
tolled the  foreign  models  and  methods  and  criticised  un- 
sparingly, with  a  view  to  improvement,  his  people's  short- 
comings in  many  respects  when  compared  with  the  so-called 
civilized  nations.  Possibly  Count  Okuma  thinks  that  the 
process  of  throwing  aside  the  foreigner  as  an  orange  sucked 
dry  has  begun  too  soon  and  is  proceeding  too  rapidly.  But 
certain  factions  among  the  people  are  impatient,  political 
opponents  are  ever  readj"  to  raise  the  cry  of  subserviency 
to  the  foreigner  and  the  assassin  lurks  in  the  background. 

Of  the  latter  Count  Okuma  bears  with  him  a  constant  re- 
minder in  the  shape  of  a  disabled  leg,  shattered  by  a  bomb 
thrown  at  him  by  a  political  fanatic,  who  concluded  that 
the  count,  who  was  then  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  was 
yielding  too  much  to  the  foreigners  in  the  matter  of  treaty 
revision,  and  selected  this  form  of  remonstrance.  But 
Count  Okuma,  while  he  sees  clearly  the  advantages  derived 
by  Europe  and  America  from  the  superiority  of  their  meth- 
ods, and  believes  in  the  most  thorough  and  complete  imita- 
tion and  adoption  of  them  by  the  Japanese,  does  not  thereby 
admit  in  the  slightest  degree  the  superiority  of  the  foreigner 
himself.  He  wishes  to  arm  the  Japanese  with  every  knowYi 
artificial  weapon  in  order  that,  conditions  being  equal,  his 
countrymen  may  demonstrate  the  natural  superiority  with 
which  he  credits  them.  The  extent  of  the  count's  belief  in 
•Japanese  capacity  and  of  his  ambition  for  Japan's  future 
is  indicated  in  a  speech  delivered  by  him  before  he  was 
made  for  the  second  time  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  and 
when  he  could  talk  with  greater  freedom  than  as  a  member 
of  the  administration.  As  quoted  by  Henry  Norman  in  his 
"Peoples  and  Politics  of  the  Far  East,"  the  count  on  this 
occasion  said: 

"The  European  powers  are  already  showing  symptoms  of 
decay,  and  the  next  century  will  see  their  constitutions  shat- 
tered and  their  empires  in  ruins.  Even  if  this  should  not 
quite  happen,  their  resources  will  have  become  exhausted  in 
unsuccessful  attempts  at  colonization.  Therefore  who  is 
fit  to  be  their  proper  successors  if  not  ourselves?  What 


129 

nation  except  Germany,  France,  Russia,  Austria,  and  Italy 
<-an  put  200,000  men  into  the  field  inside  of  a  month?  As 
to  intellectual  power,  the  Japanese  mind  is  in  every  way 
fijiial  to  the  European  mind.  It  is  true  the  Japanese  are 
small  of  stature,  but  the  superiority  of  the  body  depends 
more  on  its  constitution  than  on  its  size.  If  treaty  revision 
were  completed,  and  Japan  completely  victorious  over 
China,  we  should  become  one  of  the  chief  powers  of  the 
world,  and  no  power  could  engage  in  any  movement  without 
first  consulting  us.  Japan  could  then  enter  into  competi- 
tion with  Europe  as  the  representative  of  the  oriental  races." 
This  digression  may  serve  to  suggest  what  manner  of  man 
Count  Okuma  is,  and  may  also  throw  some  light  upon  the 
guarded  statements  of  his  interview. 

AMERICAN    TOBACCO   IN    JAPAN. 

I  met  Count  Okuma  in  the  reception  room  of  the  foreign 
office  at  Tokyo,  in  sight  of  the  spot  where  he  was  crippled  by 
the  would-be  assassin's  bomb.  On  a  table  in  the  center 
of  the  room  in  evidence  of  the  prevailing  national  habit  was 
a  plentiful  supply  of  cigarettes  and  a  complete  smoking  out- 
fit for  the  use  of  visitors.  The  count  entered  with  a  cigar- 
ette in  his  mouth  and  smoked  constantly  during  the  inter- 
view. Incidentally  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  count  is 
credited  with  objecting  to  the  tobaccoless  cigarettes  so  large- 
ly used  by  the  Japanese,  with  thinking  that  their  use  tends 
to  prevent  the  desired  increase  of  the  stature  of  the  nation, 
and  with  a  disposition  to  encourage  increased  importations 
of  real  tobacco  from  America.  Mr.  Mitsuhashi,  his  private 
secretary,  served  as  the  intelligent  and  accurate  interpreter 
of  our  conversation. 

The  lines  upon  the  count's  smooth-shaven  face  and  his 
scanty  gray  hairs  suggest  his  age  of  nearly  sixty  years.  His 
face  is  a  strong  one,  with  a  good  forehead,  prominent  cheek- 
bones, a  broad  flat  nose,  and  a  large,  firm  mouth,  with  a 
cynical  half-smile  lurking  at  each  upward-tending  corner. 
He  talks  quickly  and  fluently,  and  gives  his  interpreter  a 
great  deal  to  remember  before  he  stops  to  take  breath. 
His  projecting  teeth,  showing  a  conspicuous  gold  filling, 
are  very  much  in  evidence  when  he  speaks,  and  make  as 
vivid  an  impression  upon  the  spectator  as  those  of  Theodore 
Roosevelt. 

After  the  customary  health  queries  and  an  interchange 
of  courtesies  concerning  the  comparative  facilities  and  en- 


130 

joyuients  of  travel  in  Japan  and  the  United  States,  I  re- 
ferred to  the  hostile  comment  upon  the  proposed  new  tariff 
of  the  United  States  in  the  native  press  and  chambers  of 
commerce,  and  asked  whether  in  the  count's  opinion  there 
was  any  danger  of  a  material  lessening  of  the  traditional 
friendly  feeling  of  Japan  toward  the  United  States  in  this 
connection. 

PROTESTS    AGAINST    THE    PROPOSED    TARIFF. 

He  replied :  "The  Japanese  -nation  at  large,  the  bulk  of 
whom  are  agriculturists,  has  not  shown  any  signs  of  dis- 
content with  the  proposed  tariff.  But  manufacturers,  mer- 
chants and  other  residents  in  the  districts  in  which  silk,  tea 
and  matting  are  produced,  are  much  disturbed.  I  have  re- 
cently returned  from  a  trip  through  the  south,  visiting  Shi- 
zuoka,  Osaka,  Kolee  and  Kioto,  the  districts  noted  for  silk 
and  tea,  and  the  discontent  in  these  sections  is  great.  Since 
Japan  was  introduced,  so  to  speak,  to  the  civilized  world, 
by  the  United  States,  and  since  at  the  time  of  the  restoration 
Japan  was  largely  assisted  by  the  American  minister,  Mr. 
Townsend  Harris,  and  since  the  trade  relations  of  the  two 
countries  are  so  extensiA'e  that  between  one-third  and  one- 
fourth  of  our  entire  exports  goes  to  the  United  States,  nat- 
urally a  very  friendly  feeling  has  been  entertained  by  Japan 
toward  the  United  States,  and  our  exporters  to  America 
were  anxious  to  increase  the  imports  from  that  country  in 
return  for  articles  bought  from  us.  Largely  through  the 
efforts  of  these  men  the  imports  of  such  products  as  iron, 
locomotives,  timber,  flour,  kerosene  oil  and  cotton  have 
largely  increased  and  would  continue  to  increase  even  faster 
in  the  future  if  the  conditions  were  unchanged.  The  im- 
ports of  cotton  alone  directly  from  the  United  States  prom- 
ise soon  to  equal  the  value  of  silk  exports  to  the  United 
States  from  Japan.  In  the  same  spirit  a  Japanese  line  of 
steamers  runs  to  Seattle  in  the  United  States.  An- 
other, wilh  steamers  now  building,  will  run  to 
San  Francisco.  These  lines  have  not  only  the  ob- 
ject of  encouraging  exports  from  Japan,  but  imports  from 
the  United  States  to  Japan.  But  the  proposed  tariff,  if  en- 
acted, amounting  to  about  100  per  cent,  on  Japan's  tea  and 
silk,  will  have  the  effect  of  causing  the  Japanese  who  are 
thereby  injured  not  to  welcome  American  goods  as  hereto- 
fore. America's  kerosene  will  suffer  in  the  keen  competi- 
tion with  that  of  Russia,  its  iron  with  that  of  Belgium, 


131 

England  and  (lermany,  its  cotto»  with  that  of  China.  K-\  \<\ 
and  India.  These  opinions  have  been  expressed  in  the 
chambers  of  commerce  of  the  tea  and  silk  districts  and  are 
being  reflected  and  repeated  throughout  the  empire.  There 
is  a  report  here  that  the  Senate  will  reduce  the  duty  on  silk, 
tea  and  matting,  and  continuation  of  it  is  awaited  with  anx- 
iety. Should,  however,  the  tariff  bill  pass  even  in  the  shape 
proposed  by  the  Senate  committee  it  cannot  fail  to  injure 
seriously  the  trade  between  the  two  countries,  both  in  im- 
ports and  exports." 

NOT    A    BLOW    AT    JAPAN. 

I  called  attention  to  some  public  utterances,  which  as- 
sumed that  our  proposed  tariff  legislation  on  tea,  silk,  and 
matting,  was  a  direct  and  intentional  blow  aimed  at  Japan, 
and  asked  the  count  if  that  was  a  prevalent  belief. 

He  said:  "At  first  the  Japanese  did  think  that  the  lej,ris 
lation  was  aimed  at  them,  but  I  have  already  taken  meas- 
ures to  explain  the  matter,  and  now  they  believe  only  the 
truth.  When  the  question  first  arose  I  received  hundreds 
of  memorials  on  the  subject,  some  of  them  even  accusing  me 
of  inefficiency  for  not  officially  interfering.  I  replied  to 
these  memorials  that  if  the  law  really  made  a  specific  dis- 
crimination against  Japan  I  should  interfere  officially.  But 
it  did  not  thus  discriminate.  Other  nations  were  affected. 
There  is  an  unintentional  discrimination  perhaps  arising 
from  the  fact  that  the  tea  and  silk  of  Japan  are  cheaper  than 
those  of  its  competitors,  and  that  a  specific  duty  of  so  much 
for  a  certain  quantity  without  regard  to  its  quality  bears 
most  heavily  upon  the  cheapest  goods.  For  instance,  a  duty 
of  10  cents  per  pound  would  tax  100  per  cent,  the  average 
•la pan  lea.  while  it  would  tax  but  50  per  cent,  the  average 
Indian  tea,  the  former  costing  about  one-half  the  latter.  1 
doubt  whether  a  heavy  duty  on  tea  would  ultimately  be  of 
benefit  to  the  United  States.  The  cost  of  our  cheap  tea 
would  be  largely  increased  to  the  consumers,  who  are,  I  un- 
derstand, the  middle  and  lower  classes.  As  your  Congress 
represents  the  mass  of  the  people  who  would  be  thus  affeded 
it  seems  doubtful  whether  such  legislation  could  pass  the 
representatives  of  the  people,  or  be  beneficial  if  passed." 

I  remarked  that  the  Japanese  law  granting  a  bounty  to 
.Japanese  exporters  of  raw  silk  had  been  drawn  into  the 
controversy,  other  exporters  claiming  that  the  act  was  a  dis 
crimination  agains.t  them,  being  practically  a  rebate  of  the 


132 

export  duty,  and  some  of  the  Japanese  suggesting  that  our 
tariff  legislation  concerning  tea  and  silk  was  in  retaliation 
for  this  legislation.  I  suggested  that  if  the  United  States 
should  retaliate  at  all  the  retaliation  would  be  direct  and 
unmistakable,  imposing  an  additional  duty  equivalent  to 
the  bounty. 

THE    BOUNTY    TO    JAPANESE    SILK    EXPORTERS. 

The  count  replied  that  of  course  the  bounty  act  had  no 
connection  whatever  with  the  proposed  tariff.  "This  act  is 
not  intended  to  apply  injuriously  to  foreigners,  and  if  it  has 
any  such  effect,  that  result  will  be  unavoidable  under  the 
present  treaties.  Until  the  new  treaties  go  into  effect  for- 
eigners are  not  amenable  to  our  laws,  and  if  the  bounty 
were  extended  to  them,  as  well  as  to  the  Japanese,  and  any 
of  them  should  profit  by  its  provisions  through  false  pre- 
tenses or  otherwise  break  the  Japanese  laws  in  this  connec- 
tion, Japan  could  not  punish  them.  This  is  the  reason  that 
foreigners  are  not  included  in  the  law." 

I  asked  whether,  this  being  the  case,  the  bounty  would  be 
extended  to  foreigners  when  the  newr  treaties  did  go  into 
effect  and  they  became  amenable  to  Japanese  laws. 

The  count  replied  that  the  law7  would  probably  be  amend- 
ed at  that  time  in  some  way  to  suit  the  circumstances. 
In  response  to  questions,  the  count  said  that  the  bounty  act 
is  to  go  into  effect  on  April  1,  1898,  and  the  new  treaties 
July,  1899. 

HOW    TO    INCREASE    TRADE    WITH    JAPAN. 

I  asked  what  other  steps  than  a  reduction  of  the  proposed 
tariff  on  silk,  tea  and  matting  the  count  would  suggest  for 
the  purpose  of  increasing  trade  between  the  United  States 
and  Japan. 

He  replied:  "Within  a  few  years  I  have  repeatedly  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  to  the  president  of  the  chamber  of  com- 
merce of  New  York,  correspondents  of  American  papers 
and  many  others  with  whom  I  have  conversed  that  the  most 
important  factor  in  increasing  this  trade  will  be  intelligent 
and  unceasing  activity  on  the  part  of  the  consular  represen- 
tatives of  the  United  States  in  studying  local  conditions  and 
needs,  and  making  them  known  to  the  American  manufac- 
turers and  merchants.  Enlarged  facilities  of  communica- 
tion will  also  increase  trade.  The  Japanese  steamers  run 


133 

ning  to  Seattle  return  with  full  cargoes.  The  Great  North- 
ern Railway,  with  which  it  connects,  is  anxious  that  the 
service  shall  be  doubled.  The  new  Japanese  line  to  San 
Francisco  will  doubtless  have  a  similar  effect  in  increasing 
American  exports  to  Japan." 

THE    TROUBLE    WITH    HAWAII. 

"What  is  the  present  status  of  the  Hawaiian  contro- 
versy?" 

••For  some  unknown  reason  the  Hawaiian  government  has 
obstructed  the  immigration  of  Japanese  into  Hawaii  which 
ii  had  previously  invited.  Three  ship  loads  have  been 
stopped,  and  not  only  the  people  on  these  ships,  but  others 
mi  their  way  to  Hawaii,  have  suffered  damage.  This  act 
is  in  violation  of  treaty.  Previous  to  that  event  the  Hawaii- 
an assembly  adopted  a  measure  imposing  a  heavy  duty  upon 
-Japanese  sake,  an  unmistakable  and  objectionable  discrim- 
ination. Japan  is  compelled  to  take  a  serious  view  of  the 
matter  and  to  conduct  strong  negotiations  on  the  subject. 
Twenty-eight  years  ago  the  first  batch  of  Japanese  immi- 
grants went  to  Hawaii.  About  eleven  years  ago  immigra- 
tion was  resumed  under  a  treaty,  with  Hawaii,  signed  at 
the  request  of  the  Hawaiian  government,  which  was  then 
anxious  to  replace  Chinese  by  Japanese  as  laborers  on  the 
islands.  Since  that  time  large  numbers  of  Japanese  have 
gone  to  Hawaii,  until  now  there  are  about  25,000  of  them 
there,  peaceable,  law-abiding  people,  still  well-liked  by  the 
owners  of  the  laud  and  planters  who  employ  them.  But 
for  some  reason  several  members  of  the  present  Hawaiian 
cabinet  represent  that  the  large  and  increasing  number  of 
Japanese  is  detrimental  to  the  country,  and  indeed  threat- 
ens its  independence.  They  seem  to  have  no  such  fear  of 
an  increase  in  the  number  of  Chinese,  whom  they  previously 
disliked. 

NO    MENACE    TO     HAWAIIAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

"The  Japanese  government  and  the  Japanese  people  have 
no  idea  of  menacing  the  independence  of  Hawaii.  Nothing 
could  be  farther  from  their  wishes  and  purposes.  They 
will  be  quite  content  if  their  treaty  rights  are  observed  and 
respected.  Japan's  position  is  so  just  and  reasonable  that 
I  fully  expect  a  satisfactory  settlement  by  negotiations,  and 
do  not  apprehend  any  serious  trouble. 


134 

"Xo;  there  is  no  deadlock,  no  issue  joined,  as  reported  in 
the  papers.  The  negotiations  are  progressing." 

"If  the  two  governments  are  unable  to  agree,  is  the  issue 
one  which  would  properly  be  referred  to  arbitration?" 

"I  do  not  think  the  matter  so  serious  as  to  render  arbitra- 
tion necessary.  If  the  two  countries  cannot  come  to  an 
agreement,  resort  to  arbitration  may  be  the  alternative. 
But  as  the  Japanese  government  does  not  ask  anything  but 
what  is  reasonable  I  hope  that  the  matter  may  be  settled  be- 
tween the  two  governments  exclusively." 

I  called  attention  to  the  printed  statement  that  drilled 
soldiers  had  been  sent  to  Hawaii  in  the  guise  of  laborers. 

He  said:  ''There  is  no  foundation  whatever  for  the  report 
in  the  sense  intended.  Japan  has  a  general  system  of  con- 
scription, requiring  three  years  of  service,  beginning  at 
the  age  of  twenty,  from  all  who  pass  the  examination. 
There  are  over  20,000  men  every  year  who  are  relieved  from 
this  service  and  return  home  to  their  farms  and  other  occu- 
pations. Some  of  these  men  ma}-  have  gone  to  Hawaii  to 
labor  in  the  fields  there,  but  they  are  agriculturists,  not 
soldiers." 

"Is  it  not  possible  that  if  the  Japanese  in  Hawaii  are  per- 
mitted to  increase  until  they  form  a  majority  in  numbers 
and  power  they  may  get  beyond  the  control  of  the  far-re- 
moved home  government,  and  make  serious  trouble  in  spite 
of  the  just  and  friendly  attitude  of  the  government  of 
Japan?" 

"I  do  not  entertain  any  such  apprehension.  An  order 
issued  by  the  consul  general  in  Hawaii  is  now'  effective 
throughout  the  25,000  immigrants.  They  are  peaceable  and 
law-abiding  people,  wTho  go  there  with  no  other  object  than 
money-making.  Obedience  to  legal  authority  is  a  natural 
characteristic  of  them.  I  do  not  believe  that  there  wrould 
be  any  trouble  if  the  number  were  indefinitely  increased." 

NO    DANGER    OF    A    PEACEFUL     REVOLUTION. 

"If  the  Japanese  had  a  majority  of  the  population  might 
they  not  overturn  the  existing  government  and  gain  control 
merely  by  demanding  and  securing  representation  in  the 
Hawaiian  legislative  body?" 

"Most  of  the  Japanese  do  not  go  there  to  reside  for  any 
length  of  time.  They  return  to  Japan  after  a  few  years  of 
money-making.  The  individual  Japanese  in  Hawaii  are 
constantly  changing.  They  have  no  political  interest  in 


135 

the  country.  There  would  be  no  danger  of  the  Japanese 
obtaining  control  of  the  islands  if  they  were  fully  admitted 
as  voters  in  the  representative  government.  With  a  long 
residence  qualification  and  ability  to  speak  and  write  Eng- 
lish very  few  of  these  contract  laborers*  and  temporary  so- 
joiirners  would  qualify.  Nearly  all  of  the  first  and  earlier 
batches  of  .Japanese  immigrants  to  Hawaii  have  already 
returned  to  Japan,  and  those  who  are  there  are  in  the  main 
immigrants  of  the  last  few  years,  who  will  in  turn  come 
back  to  Japan,  who  are  now  not  concent  rated  at  Honolulu, 
but  scattered  over  the  plantations,  working  hard,  and  en- 
tirely harmless  and  unobjectionable,  to  the  great  satisfac- 
tion of  those  who  are  employing  them." 

"What  is  the  Japanese  government's  opinion  of  the  rela- 
tions between  the  United  States  and  Hawaii?" 

INTIMATE  RELATIONS  OF  HAWAII  AND  THE  UNITED    STATES. 

"Japan  recognizes  that  the  relations  between  the  United 
States  and  Hawaii  are  very  intimate.  The  Americans  are 
in  a  majority  among  the  whites  on  the  islands.  They  own 
most  of  the  property.  They  have  a  large  majority  in  the 
present  cabinet.  As  Hawaii  lies  between  the  United  States 
and  Japan,  somewhat  nearer  to  the  United  States,  some  peo- 
ple on  the  islands  have  already  sought  annexation  by  the 
United  States.  But  that  republic  should  be  satisfied  with 
upholding  the  independence  of  Hawaii.  Roth  the  United 
States  and  Japan  have  an  interest  in  maintaining  the  status 
quo.  This  arrangement  is  most  beneficial  for  all  concerned. 
I  cannot  understand  that  the  United  States  should  desire 
to  annex  Hawaii.  Politically  it  would  be  a  mistake,  and 
strategically  the  great  strength  of  the  United  States  lies  in 
her  solidarity." 

"Suppose  that  the  United  States  should  annex  Hawaii, 
is  Japan's  interest  in  the  islands  such  as  to  entitle  her  to 
protest  against  annexation  or  to  view  the  act  as  unjust  or 
unfriendly  to  her?" 

"It  is  difficult  to  express  an  opinion  on  that  subject  now. 
I  do  not  believe  for  an  instant  that  annexation  will  come 
to  pass.  I  believe  that  the  Japanese,  as  a  nation,  would 
greatly  deplore  such  a  consummation,  if  it  should  be  ef- 
fected." 

"On  what  lines  is  Japanese  development  now  proceeding 
must  rapidly?" 

••The  great  purpose  which  Japan  ought  to  pursue,  and  is 


136 

pursuing,  is  to  raise  to  a  higher  level  her  position  in  the 
eyes  of  the  world.  To  do  this  it  is  important  to  strengthen 
and  extend  her  system  of  common  education.  Japanese 
commercial  money-making  ability,  tending  to  make  the  na- 
tion wealthier,  must  also  be  increased,  and  to  that  end  edu- 
cation is  necessary.  It  is  also  essential  to  advance  and  ex- 
tend female  education,  the  higher  education  of  women. 
Better  progress  must  also  be  made  in  the  study  of  science." 

JAPANESE    NATIONAL    SENTIMENT. 

I  referred  to  the  indications  of  a  strono-  national  :  enti- 
ment  among  the  Japanese  and  to  the  wise  policy  of  the  au- 
thorities in  fostering  that  sentiment  in  the  schools  and  in 
the  services  of  the  national  religion,  especially  in  memorial 
services,  honoring  those  who  fell  in  battle. 

The  count  responded  with  enthusiasm:  "That  principle 
or  sentiment  forms  the  fundamental  basis  of  all  our  educa- 
tion. The  Japanese  is  taught  to  place  the  emperor,  the 
ruler  of  his  country,  in  the  first  place  in  his  thoughts  and 
in  his  reverence,  and  his  nation  vis-a-vis  other  countries. 

''One  fault  observable  in  our  previous  system  of  educa- 
tion was  the  tendency  to  over-educate  the  mind  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  body.  Bodily,  semi-military  exercises  in  the 
schools  and  among  the  young  men  are  going  on  not  only 
in  the  cities,  but  even  in  the  remotest  districts  of  the  em- 
pire." 

I  said  that  I  had  observed  this  universal  drilling  and  mili- 
tary, or  semi-military,  exercising,  and  that  on  the  surface 
it  seemed  as  if  the  whole  nation,  young  and  old,  was  pre- 
paring itself  to  fight  somebody. 

The  count  responded  laughingly:  "The  Japanese  are  a 
peace-loving  people.  What  they  seek  is  the  healthful  phys- 
ical development,  the  bodily  education,  of  the  nation.  They 
are  not  planning  and,  indeed,  have  no  desire  or  inclination 
to  fight  anybody." 

IMPROVE    THE   CONSULAR    SERVICE. 

Count  Okuma's  suggestion  of  the  importance  of  the  co- 
operation of  our  consular  service  in  building  up  foreign 
trade  and  of  the  need  of  greater  efficiency  on  the  part  of 
those  agrnts  is  sound  and  touches  a  weak  point  in  our  line 
of  assault  upon  the  markets  of  the  world.  Our  consuls 
must  be  active,  energetic  men  of  affairs,  and  the  greater 


1:57 

their  experience  and  knowledge  of  the  business  conditions 
and  methods  of  the  country  to  which  they  are  sent  the  more 
valuable  will  their  services  be.  In  China  and  Japan  at 
present  our  consuls  are  judges  in  courts  of  extensive  juris- 
diction. These  offices  with  their  important  commercial 
and  judicial  functions  should  cease  to  be  classed  in  the 
category  of  rewards  for  partisan  or  personal  political  ser- 
vices to  be  distributed  as  tokens  of  grateful  appreciation 
of  skill  in  manipulating  primaries  or  a  convention  or  some 
particular  class  of  voters.  But  Count  Okuma's  criticism 
while  well  founded  as  a  general  proposition  would  be  unjust 
if  it  were  construed  as  applying  to  the  American  consulate 
closest  at  hand.  It  is  generally  conceded  that  the  improve- 
ments in  our  export  trade  to  Japan,  which  Count  Okuma 
credits  largely  to  the  friendly  offices  of  the  Japanese  traders, 
are  in  great  measure  due  to  the  intelligent  and  persevering 
labors  of  Consul  (Jeneral  Mclvor  at  Yokohama.  Especially 
is  this  true  in  relation  to  the  increased  importations  of  cot- 
ton, and  to  the  development  now  in  progress  of  our  exports 
of  lumber.  Sentiment  plays  a  small  part  in  international 
trade.  While  -Japan's  grateful  affection  for  us  was  at  its 
height,  and  while  we  were  buying  far  more  from  her  than 
any  other  nation  in  the  world,  she  bought  very  little  from 
us  and  patroni/ed  instead  the  Englishmen  whom  she  heart- 
ily disliked.  Sentiment  is  not  responsible  for  the  recent 
increases  in  her  American  purchases.  In  the  case  of  cot- 
ton, for  instance,  she  now  buys  directly  from  us  instead  of 
indirectly  through  Liverpool,  because  Mr.  .Mclvor  convinced 
the  owners  of  the  Japanese  cotton  mills  that  it  wTas  econ- 
omy to  dispense  with  the  commission  to  a  middleman  and 
put  them  in  the  way  of  obtaining  a  cheap  freight  rate  for 
the  cotton  from  American  railroads.  The  individual  pur- 
chaser of  cotton  or  iron  or  kerosene  oil  in  Japan  will  buy 
that  article  wherever  he  can  get  it  to  the  best  advantage, 
and  will  not  permit  national  friendliness  or  unfriendliness 
to  affect  his  individual  pocket  book. 

These  considerations  minimize  apprehensions  of  a  reduc- 
tion of  the  volume  of  our  exports  to  Japan  in  case  of  the 
imposition  by  Congress  of  a  heavy  duty  upon  tea.  silk  and 
matting.  Japan  under  the  new  treaties  will  herself  soon 
be  increasing  largely  her  present  duties  on  imports  and  her 
government  will  of  course  as  a  matter  of  policy  carefully 
avoid  taking  any  position  at  this  time  which  imputes  un- 
friendliness in  such  increases  on  the  part  of  the  importing 
toward  the  exporting  nation. 


138 

JAPAN'S  INTENTIONS  CONCERNING  HAWAII. 

There  is  no  reason  to  question  the  sincerity  of  the  dis- 
avowal by  the  Japanese  government  of  covetous  inclina- 
tions toward  Hawaii.  It  speaks  for  today,  not  for  next 
year,  or  the  next  decade,  and  it  speaks  for  itself  alone,  not 
for  the  individual  Japanese  either  in  Japan  or  Hawaii.  In 
the  immediate  future  Japan  has  ''other  fish  to  fry."  The 
keynote  of  Japan's  foreign  policy  is  sounded  in  the  quoted 
words  of  Count  Okuma:  "Japan  could  then  enter  into  com- 
petition with  Europe  as  the  representative  of  the  oriental 
races.''  "Asia  for  the  Asiatics"  is  the  Japanese  Monroe 
doctrine,  and  as  the  only  genuine  nation  of  the  far  east,  as 
the  only  oriental  people  wrelded  together  into  homogeneous 
and  powerful  combination  by  a  strong  national  sentiment, 
they  arc  or  aspire  to  be  the  Asiatics  for  whom  exclusively 
Asia  is  reserved.  Defeat  of  even  the  smallest  realization 
of  this  ambitious  hope  is  threatened  by  Russia,  which  pre- 
vented Japan  from  securing  a  foothold  on  the  Asiatic  con- 
tinent as  a  result  of  her  victory  over  China,  and  which  will 
soon,  it  is  evident,  take  for  her  own  use  that  which  she  com- 
pelled Japan  to  relinquish.  With  the  completion  of  the 
Siberian  railroad  to  a  terminus  in  a  seaport  open  all  of  the. 
year,  at  present  in  the  possession  of  China  or  Corea,  Russia 
will  dominate  the  Pacific.  She  can  concentrate  through  her 
railroad  an  overwhelming  land  force  for  Asiatic  use,  and  her 
strong  navy  will  be  at  home  in  her  Pacific  harbors,  to  co- 
operate with  army  and  fortifications.  Russia  and  Japan 
aspire  to  play  the  same  role  in  Asia,  and  only  one  can  be 
successful.  The  Japanese  people  have  not  entertained  the 
slightest  doubt  of  their  ability  to  whip  the  Russians  in  Asia 
in  a  fight  between  the  two  armies,  and  their  only  apprehen- 
sion has  related  to  their  navy,  which  they  have  been  inces- 
santly strengthening.  Russia  is  steadily  massing  troops 
and  collecting  warships  at  Vladivostock.  Japan  is  spend- 
ing the  Chinese  indemnity  and  much  other  money  in  war- 
ships, in  fortifications  and  in  army  development.  All  Japan 
is  drilling,  for  the  sake  of  its  health,  as  Count  Okuma  says. 
If  there  is  not  a  collision  in  the  near  future  between  these 
opposing  forces  it  will  be  because  Japan  confesses  defeat  in 
;i(!\;iii( -c,  and  abandons  her  dream  of  Asiatic  supremacy, 
clearly  Russia  wMll  fight  for  a  winter  seaport  on  the  Pacific. 
For  centuries  she  has  been  bottled  up  and  confined  to  har- 
bors closed  by  ice  for  half  the  year.  In  the  eyes  not  only 
of  apprehensive  Japan,  but  of  uneasy  England,  she  is  now. 


139 

like  the  Afrite  in  the  Arabian  Nights,  about  to  escape  from 
the  bottle  and  to  expand  in  stature  until  her  head  touches 

the  sky. 

JAPAN    WANTS    THE    PHILIPPINE    ISLANDS 

If  Japan  abandons  the  hope  of  checking  Russia  in  the 
north  her  next  ambition  in  accordance  with  the  principle 
of  "Asia  for  I  he  Asiatics"  is  to  annex  the  Philippine  Islands, 
her  neighbor  on  the  south.  Japan  does  not  fear  Spain,  and 
would,  it  was  whispered,  have  assented  some  time  ago  to  a 
petition  of  the  insurgents  and  have  taken  a  hand  in  the 
ret  MM)  i  fray  if  she  had  believed  that  the  European  powers 
would  permit  her  to  retain  possession  of  the  islands.  In 
case  of  a  general  war  in  Europe,  breaking  up  the  concert 
of  the  powers,  Japan  would,  it  is  believed,  promptly  seize 
I  lie  Philippine  Islands.  With  the  defeated  Chinese  to  be 
const  a  nth-  watched,  if  not  feared;  with  menacing  Russia 
to  the  north;  and  with  Spain  as  an  enemy  already  made 
in  opposition  to  southern  expansion,  Japan  will  not  now 
reach  out  for  Hawaii  at  the  risk  of  offending  the  United 
Slates.  Hawaii  is  on  the  American,  not  the  Asiatic  side 
of  the  Pacific,  and  the  American  flag  has  once  floated  over 
it.  Japan  would  be  sorry  to  see  it  annexed  by  the  United 
Suites,  for  annexation  would  close  a  profitable  market  for 
the  empire's  contract  labor,  and  would  destroy  all  hope  of 
Japan's  ever  possessing  a  point  of  vast  strategic  importance 
to  the  naval  control  of  the  north  Pacific.  But  she  has  no 
such  interest  in  the  islands  that  her  present  government 
would  for  a  moment  contemplate  a  war  over  their  control. 
It  would  be  more  in  accord  with  Japan's  national  policy 
if  the  thousands  of  her  people  now  cultivating  as  contract 
laborers  the  sugar  lands  of  Hawaii  were  developing  the  rich 
resources  of  her  own  Formosa. 

JAPAN    HAS    TROUBLES    OF    HER   OWN. 

In  speculating  upon  the  probable  action  of  Japan  in  future 
years  a  distinction  must  be  made  between  the  people  and 
the  government  of  the  empire.  They  are  not  equivalents. 
The  control  of  the  latter  over  the  former  is  not  perfect,  and 
the  tendency  is  not  toward  a  strengthening  of  the  govern- 
ment. There  are  internal  dissensions,  the  material  out  of 
which  revolutions  are  made,  among  the  Japanese.  A  ma- 
jority of  those  who  have  representation  in  the  parliament 


140 

which  has  been  created  desire  that  its  nominal  powers 
shall  become  real,  and  they  engaged  in  a  fierce  struggle 
with  the  government  over  the  appropriations,  attempting 
to  coerce  the  cabinet  by  cutting  off  the  supplies.  Then 
ihriv  are  sectional  jealousies,  inflamed  by  the  monopoly  of 
office-holding  enjoyed  by  four  of  the  great  clans,  formerly 
daimiates,  since  the  revolution  of  1808.  The  anti-foreign 
sentiment,  which  is  increasing,  also  tends  to  make  unruly  a 
people  ordinarily  submissive  to  constituted  authorities. 
Ito,  one  of  the  greatest  of  Japanese  statesmen,  is  credited 
with  having  precipitated  the  war  with  China  in  order  to 
unite  the  wrangling  factions  and  to  avoid  an  internal  out- 
break. The  result  of  the  war  naturally  inflated  the  national 
vanity.  The  humiliation  afterward  inflicted  by  Kussia,  for 
Avhich  the  Japanese  held  their  own  government  partly  re- 
sponsible, cut  the  national  pride  to  the  quick.  The  ten- 
dency of  both  events  is  to  increase  the  individual  self-asser- 
tiveness  of  the  Japanese. 

In  the  case  of  any  controversy  which  wounds  Japanese 
sensitiveness,  now  abnormally  excessive,  or  which  threat- 
ens disappointment  of  any  cherished  hope  of  the  people,  the 
question  which  will  arise  is  not  merely  what  will  a  wise 
government,  carrying  out  a  definite  policy,  think  or  do,  but 
what  will  an  excited  people  permit  or  compel  their  rulers  to 
do.  The  expressions  of  the  native  press  and  of  individual 
Japanese  concerning  Hawaii  are  not  so  politic  and  reassur- 
ing as  those  of  the  government. 

Japan  necessarily  plays  the  waiting  game.  Discretion 
forbids  any  more  in  the  direction  of  Hawaii  at  this  time. 
But  if  the  United  States  repudiates  its  semi-protectorate 
over  the  islands,  as  for  instance  by  unqualifiedly  refusing 
or  indefinitely  postponing  annexation,  Japan  will  absorb 
them  naturally  and  irresistibly  without  the  necessity  of  any 
open  reversal  by  the  Japanese  government  of  its  announced 
policy  and  without  requiring  from  it  any  action  whatsoever. 
Jt  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  Japanese  population  of 
ll;i\\aii  was  increased  by  more  than  half  a  thousand  merely 
from  the  three  ship  loads  of  immigrants,  who,  as  it  is  usu- 
ally stated,  were  stopped  and  sent  back  to  Japan.  To  be 
sure  more  than  a  thousand  were  rejected,  but  543  ran  the 
^•;i  11  nt  let  and  now  swell  the  peaceful  army  of  occupation. 
In  spite  of  everything  that  the  Hawaiian  government,  un- 
supported, can  do,  Japanese  immigrants  will  enter  in  suffi- 
cient numbers  to  control  the  affairs  of  the  islands  in  the 
near  future  by  combination  with  the  royalists  and  nominal 


141 

restoration  of  native  rule,  if  not  by  openly  and  in  the  first 
instance  making  Hawaii  a  dependency  of  Japan. 

If  the  Hawaiian  Islands  are  to  remain  a  part  of  America 
and  are  not  to  be  abandoned  to  Asia  peaceful  annexation  to 
the  United  States  should  be  effected  at  this  time,  when  the 
policy  of  the  Japanese  government,  which  looks  to  extension 
in  other  directions,  has  not  been  demonstrated  to  be  in  any 
respect  visionary,  and  when  the  Japanese  themselves  have 
not  been  aroused  and  rendered  dangerous  by  the  failure  of 
any  cherished  projects  in  Asia,  and  both  in  Japan  and 
Hawaii  are  reasonably  well  controlled  by  the  government 
at  Tokyo. 


HAWAII'S  CRISIS. 


Annexation  by  America  or  Final  Absorption  by  Japan 
—Japan's  Severe  Pressure  on  Hawaii— Arbitration 
Is  the  Next  Move  of  the  Little  Republic— No  War 
after  Annexation. 

[Editorial  correspondence  of  the  Evening  Star.] 

Honolulu,  Hawaii,  July  1,  1897. 

The  steamer  City  of  Peking,  which  brought  to  the  islands 
by  way  of  Japan  the  first  information  of  McKinley's  elec- 
tion, performed  a  similar  office  in  regard  to  the  annexation 
treaty,  the  definite  news  that  it  had  been  signed,  conveyed 
in  a  cablegram  to  Yokohama,  arriving  here  by  that  steamer 
on  the  L'Jlth  of  June.  With  that  cablegram  as  an  inspira- 
tion this  community  worked  itself  into  a  state  of  feverish 
excitement  and  expectation,  many  crediting  the  printed  ru- 
mors, uased  upon  alleged  private  information,  to  the  effect 
that  the  foreign  affairs  committee  of  the  Senate  had  already 
reported  favorably  upon  the  treaty,  and  that  a  day  had  even 
been  fixed  for  voting  upon  it,  the  19th  of  June  being  the  date 
assigned.  The  coming  of  the  Mariposa  from  the  Pacific 
coast  with  news  a  week  later  than  that  of  the  Peking  was 
eagerly  and  impatiently  awaited,  and  when  it  was  learned 
on  the  arrival  of  that  steamer  this  morning  that  the  Senate 
had  been  true  to  its  traditions  as  a  deliberative  body  and 
that  action  upon  the  treaty  would  not  be  immediate,  the 
disappointment,  though  unreasonable,  was  profound. 

STRONG   NEGOTIATIONS. 

The  news  of  the  signing  of  the  annexation  treaty  came 
at  an  interesting  point  in  the  war  of  words  called  "strong 
i  it-go  nations''  by  Count  Okuma,  which  has  been  progressing 
between  .Japan  and  Hawaii.  The  Star's  regular  correspond 
ent  at  Honolulu,  Kamehameha,  has  kept  its  readers  thor- 
oughly informed  of  the  various  stages  of  this  controversy 
pivrrding  the  very  recent  answer  of  Mr.  Cooper,  Hawaiian 
minister  of  foreign  affairs,  which  Mr.  Shimamura,  the  Jap- 


143 

anese  minister,  li;is  awaited  for  sonic  time  with  unconcealed 
impatience  and  annoyance.  The  new  matter  in  this  docu- 
ment, unpublished  up  to  the  present  date,  even  in  Honolulu, 
and  of  importance  as  establishing  a  fresh  line  of  Hawaiian 
defense,  is  in  substance  to  the  following  effect:  The  treaty 
of  1S71,  which  Japan  claims  to  have  been  violated  in  this 
case,  is  limited  in  its  scope.  It  applies  only  to  merchant  im- 
migrants and  not  to  laborers.  This  limitation  upon  the 
treaty  has  been  recognized  by  Japan  in  applying  it  to  in- 
coming Hawaiian*. 

That  t lie  treaty  does  not  apply  to  laborers  is  further 
shown  l>y  the  fact  that  a  labor  convention  between  Japan 
and  Hawaii  was  necessary  to  regulate  the  new  kind  of  im- 
migration. The  laws  passed  by  Hawaii,  following  the  labor 
convention,  of  the  enforcement  of  which  complaint  is  now 
made,  were  not  objected  to  by  Japan  at  the  time  of  their 
enactment  as  in  contravention  of  the  treaty.  It  follows 
that  the  treaty  does  not  apply  to  the  cases  of  any  of  the 
immigrants  in  controversy;  and  that  subject  to  the  labor 
convention,  which  is  still  in  force  because  six  months'  no- 
lice  of  its  abrogation  is  necessary,  Hawaii  is  entitled  under 
the  general  powers  of  independent  governments  to  make 
and  enforce  such  laws  of  general  application  as  it  deems 
necessary  with  reference  to  the  admission  of  aliens.  Hawaii 
welcomes  immigration  in  accordance  with  its  laws,  labor 
conventions  and  treaties  when  they  apply. 

JAPAN    STILL    DISSATISFIED. 

Since  the  aim  of  th&  Japanese  minister  has  been  to  elicit 
from  the  Hawaiian  government  a  confession  that  it  had 
violated  a  treaty  in  excluding  immigrants,  a  promise  of  in- 
demnity for  the  injuries  inflicted,  and  a  pledge  against  sim- 
ilar violations  in  the  future,  this  explanation  would  evi- 
dently, share  the  fate  of  its  predecessors  in  being  viewed  as 
unsatisfactory  by  Japan's  representative;  and  as  that  of- 
ficial had  in  a  newspaper  interview  thrown  out  menacing 
intimations  of  what  might  happen  if  Hawaii's  answer  should 
continue  to  be  unsatisfactory,  his  course  on  receipt  of  the 
reply  has  been  a  matter  of  anxious  conjecture.  While  all 
^Hawaii  was  holding  its  breath  in  the  intensity  of  its  appre- 
hensive observation  of  Mr.  Shimamura,  in  suspense  lest  he 
should  shake  off  Hawaiian  dust  from  his  feet  and  sever 
diplomatic  relations  with  the  republic,  or  should  present 
an  ultimatum,  to  be  enforced  by  the  guns  of  the  Xaniwa. 


144 

there  came  as  an  additional  element  of  friction  and  excite- 
in*  sit  the  news  of  the  annexation  treaty  and  of  Japan's 
protest. 

On  my  arrival  here  from  Yokohama,  eleven  days  ago,  I 
discovered  that  the  question  of  the  possibility  of  arbitrating 
the  immigration  question  was  one  of  profound  local  interest. 
In  response  to  a  question  from  me  Count  Okuma,  Japan's 
minister  of  foreign  affairs,  had  intimated  in  Tokio  that, 
while  in  view  of  the  justice  and  reasonableness  of  Japan's 
position  he  hoped  for  a  settlement  of  the  matter  through 
negotiation  by  the  two  governments  exclusively,  in  the 
event  of  continued  disagreement  arbitration  might  be  the 
alternative.  Minister  Shimamura  had  in  a  newspaper  in- 
terview, indorsed  by  him  as  accurate,  expressed  precisely 
the  opposite  opinion.  He  spoke  of  the  controversy  as  a 
matter  involving  the  honor  of  Japan,  in  which,  indeed,  that 
nation's  honor  was  at  stake,  and  added:  "In  small  affairs 
arbitration  may  be  allowed,  but  never  where  the  honor  of  a 
nation  is  at  stake.  There  is  no  court  where  cases  in  inter- 
national law  are  tried — the  only  tribunal  is  the  strong  arm 
and  the  strong  vessels.  Honor  is  too  sacred  a  thing  to  any 
nation  to  be  played  with  by  courts  of  arbitration." 

A    TALK    WITH     MINISTER    SHIMAMURA. 

Shortly  after  my  arrival  in  Honolulu  I  called  upon  Min- 
ister Shimamura  for  the  purpose  of  interviewing  him.  He 
is  a  slender,  nervous,  frail-looking  man,  whose  black  mus- 
tache gives  as  yet  no  indications  of  the  gray  of  even  middle 
age.  He  is  notably  courteous  in  manner.  He  was  Japanese 
consul  in  New  York  City  for  some  time,  and  speaks  Eng- 
lish fairly  well.  When  at  a  loss  precisely  what  to  say,  and 
wishing  time  to  think,  he  prolongs  the  final  syllable  of 

every  fifth  or  sixth  word  with  a  long-drawn-out  ah — > 

or  eh —  -  to  an  extent  that  is  painful  to  the  hearer,  and 
suggests  an  impediment  of  speech.  It  is  said  that  under 
similar  circumstances  Daniel  Webster  was  accustomed  to 
sink  his  voice  until  it  became  temporarily  inaudible.  Mr. 
Shimamura's  method  is  just  as  effective. 

We  talked  over  much  the  same  points  that  were  discussed 
in  my  interview  with  Count  Okuma,  except  that  Mr.  Shima* 
mura  disclaimed  official  authority  to  say  anything  on  the 
subject  of  annexation. 


145 
IS    ARBITRATION    ADMISSIBLE? 

When  the  arbitration  matter  was  brought  up  he  called 
into  the  room  Mr.  Akiyama,  the  special  legal  adviser  sent 
from  Tokio  to  co-operate  with  him  in  the  settlement  of  the 
immigration  controversy.  Mr.  Akiyama  is  smooth-shaven, 
stout,  smiling  and  pugnacious.  After  much  questioning  I 
elicited  from  them  a  joint  answer  to  the  query  whether 
this  issue  was  one  in  respect  to  which  arbitration  is  admis- 
sible that  was  much  milder  in  tone  than  Mr.  Shimamura's 
previous  utterances.  Possibly  instructions  on  the  subject 
had  been  received  from  Tokyo  since  the  date  of  the  first  in- 
terview. Mr.  Shimamura  said:  "I  cannot  say  yet  whether 
the  matter  does  or  does  not  fall  within  the  class  of  cases  in 
respect  to  which  arbitration  is  admissible.  Japan  is  seek- 
ing only  justice.  Much  will  depend  upon  the  natute  of  the  an 
swer  which  I  am  awaiting  from  the  Hawaiian  government. 
Japan  may  not  object  to  arbitration." 

After  the  Hawaiian  answer  above  referred  to  had  been 
sent  I  called  again  on  Mr.  Shimamura,  reminded  him  that 
he  had  made  his  views  concerning  the  admissibility  of  ar- 
bitration dependent  on  the  character  of  Mr.  Cooper's  reply, 
and  asked  if  there  was  now  anything  that  he  wished  to  add 
to  what  he  had  said  on  this  subject.  He  replied  courteously 
that  he  could  say  nothing  further  concerning  arbitration, 
ihat  the  whole  matter  now  rested  with  his  home  govern- 
ment. We  talked  for  some  time  about  other*  phases  of  the 
controversy,  and  he  gave  no  indication  of  indignation  or  ex- 
citement, and  no  intimation  of  any  sensational  action  on 
his  part,  such  as  demanding  his  passport,  and  quitting  the 
country,  at  which  he  had  at  one  time  hinted. 

AKIYAMA'S  ANGRY  OUTBURST. 

Counsellor  Akiyama,  whom  I  met  in  the  Hawaiian  Hotel, 
was  not  so  restrained  and  circumspect.  He  said  with  much 
heat  concerning  Mr.  Cooper's  last  letter:  "It's  smoke,  smoke, 
nothing  but  smoke!"  He  asked  me  if  I  had  read  the  letter. 
I  replied  in  the  negative,  saving,  however,  that  I  thought 
I  knew  its  substance.  He  snapped  out:  "It  has  no  sub- 
stance. I  am  going  home  on  the  next  steamer.  There  is 
nothing  that  I  can  do  here.  My  government  will  now  settle 
the  matter." 


146 
HAWAII    TO    PROPOSE    ARBITRATION. 

The  issues  in  the  immigration  controversy  are  now  dis- 
tinctly formed.  The  question  is  clearly  one  in  respect  to 
which  arbitration  is  appropriate,  and  this  fact  is  recognized 
by  Count  Okuma,  who  controls  Japanese  foreign  policy. 
The  Hawaiian  government  may  reasonably  be  expected  to 
apply  at  once  for  the  good  offices  of  the  United  States  to 
bring  about  su,ch  arbitration  by  some  impartial  umpire,  be- 
fore Japan  hurls  an  ultimatum  and  mediation  is  rendered 
difficult.  This  step  cannot  be  taken  too  quickly.  When 
the  disappointed  and  exasperated  Akiyama  gets  to  Tokyo 
the  tendency  of  his  reports  and  recommendations,  and  of  his 
influence,  so  far  as  it  goes,  cannot  fail  to  be  in  the  direction 
of  some  vigorous  action  against  Hawaii  and  in  opposition 
to  arbitration. 

The  annexation  treaty  news  was  not  expected  at  this  time, 
even  by  the  Hawaiians,  and  came  as  a  complete  surprise 
and  shock  to  Japan's  representatives  here.  Neither  Count 
Okuma  in  Tokyo  nor  Mr.  Shimamura  here  showed  any  ap- 
preciation of  the  possibility  of  such  an  event  as  the  speedy 
signing  of  a  treaty.  Japan's  protest  to  the  United  States 
against  the  treaty,  which,  it  is  understood,  is  to  be  rein- 
forced by  a  similar,  protest  to  the  Hawaiian  government 
against  its  ratification,  was  also  a  startling  surprise  to  every- 
body. The  intimation  of  the  possibility  of  such  a  protest 
made  to  me  by  Count  Okuma  in  Tokio  was,  I  was  informed 
by  a  prominent  official  here,  the  most  definite  and  signifi- 
cant statement  on  the  subject  made  up  to  that  time  by  any 
representative  of  Japan,  the  previous  policy  having  been  to 
profess  complete  indifference  on  the  subject,  as  a  matter  in 
which  Japan  was  not  especially  concerned. 

THE    PROTEST    WILL    HELP    ANNEXATION. 

While  courteous  consideration  of  Japan's  protest  may 
work  some  slight  delay  in  voting  upon  the  annexation 
treaty,  the  ultimate  effect  of  the  protest  should  be  to  in- 
crease the  votes  in  favor  of  annexation  when  the  time  for 
action  comes.  It  throws  a  light  upon  the  real  views  and 
purposes  of  Japan  in  respect  to  the  islands.  It  shows  that 
Hawaii  is  to  be  Japanese  if  not  American,  and- that  annexa-. 
tion  is  the  only  way  to  prevent  its  abandonment  to  Asia. 
It  makes  annexationists  of  those  who,  averse  to  annexation 
except  as  a  last  resort,  refuse  to  yield  to  a  possible  enemy 


147 

control  of  so  important  a  naval  and  strategetie  point  in 
the  adjacent  Pacific,  and  who  are  unwilling  to  surrender  to 
the  tender  mercies  of  Japan  the  progressive  American  com- 
munity and  government  in  these  islands,  and  will  not  per- 
mit the  civilized  and  Christian  institutions  of  Hawaii  to  be 
submerged  and  lost  in  a  pagan  and  Asiatic  flood. 

Japan's  political  interest  in  the  islands,  frequently  de- 
nied, is  now  clearly  revealed.  For  many  years  there  has 
been  steady  pressure,  sometimes  by  officials,  sometimes  by 
individuals,  to  gain  representation  in  the  Hawaiian  govern- 
ment for  the  Japanese  in  the  islands.  A  high  official  at 
Tokyo  told  me  that  when  Kalakaua  was  king  he  promised 
such  representation  to  the  Japanese.  This  statement  is  not 
improbable.  It  is  known  that  at  one  time  Kalakaua  be- 
lieved that  the  affinities  of  the  Hawaiians  were  Asiatic 
rather  than  American,  and  sought  for  a  matrimonial  alli- 
ance between  certain  scions  of  royalty  of  Japan  and  Ha- 
waii. At  the  time  of  the  revolution  of  1893  the  Japanese 
consul  general  demanded  of  the  new  government  the  right 
of  suffrage  for  Japanese  subjects  in  the  islands.  In  Count 
Okuma's  first  communication  to  the  Hawaiian  government 
in  the  pending  immigration  controversy  he  advanced  the 
view  that  the  treaty  between  Japan  and  Hawaii  placed 
the  Japanese  in  the  islands  on  terms  of  absolute  equality 
with  Hawaiians  "in  civil  rights,"  as  well  as  in  the  protec- 
tion of  life  and  property,  and  this  proposition  was  construed 
by  Minister  Cooper  as  another  instance  of  pressure  for  the 
right  of  suffrage,  and  reply  was  made  on  the  basis  of  this 
construction.  It  should  be  said,  however,  that  in  his  con- 
versation with  me  (though  not  in  any  official  correspondence) 
Mr.  Shimamura  vigorously  denied  that  any  request  for  suf- 
frage was  intended  or  made  under  any  reasonable  construc- 
tion of  Count  Okuma's  letter. 

THE    JAPANESE    YEARNING    FOR    HAWAII. 

There  has  been  a  constant  effort  by  individual  Japanese 
to  secure  the  voting  right.  In  climate,  soil  and  wages  Ha- 
waii is  a  paradise  for  the  Japanese.  They  are  in  love  with 
the  country,  and  want  to  take  possession,  either  through 
the. ballot  box  or  otherwise.  Their  reported  talk  both  in 
Hawaii  and  in  Japan,  in  the  native  newspapers  and  on  the 
streets,  is  to  the  effect  that  Hawaii  belongs  and  must  con- 
tinue to  belong  to  them. 

When  Paramount  Commissioner  Blount  was  about  to  or- 


der  the  American  flag  to  be  lowered  and  the  American  ma- 
rines to  return  to  the  Hoston,  the  apprehension  was  felt  an'l 
expressed  that  following  the  withdrawal  of  the  Americans 
.Japanese  from  their  warship,  the  Naniwa  mow  again  in 
Honolulu  harbor),  would  march  in  and  take  possession. 
Katlu-r  than  permit  this  apprehension  to  interfere  with  a 
consummation  so  desirable  from  Japan's  point  of  view  as  the 
hauling  down  of  the  American  flag,  the  Naniwa  was  ordered 
away  from  Honolulu. 

Concerning  the  tendencies  of  the  Japanese  on  the.  islands. 
Admiral  Walker's  report  of  1894  states  the  truth  concerning 
them  according  to  the  consensus  of  opinion,  except  that  it 
is  thought  that  the  result  of  the  recent  Japanese  victory 
over  China  has  been  to  intensify  their  restlessness,  self-as- 
sertiveness  and  political  ambitions.  Admiral  Walker  said: 
"They  are  inclined  to  be  turbulent;  they  stand  together  as 
a  solid  body,  and  their  leaders  are  said  to  have  political 
ambitions  and  propose  to  claim  for  their  free  men  the  right 
to  vote  under  the  conditions  with  which  that  right  is  granted 
to  other  foreigners.  They  are  a  brave  people,  with  mili- 
tary instincts,  and  would  fight  if  aroused  to  violence." 

RECIPROCAL    DISCOURTESIES. 

A  peculiarity  in  the  quarrel  between  Japan  and  Hawaii 
is  that  each  of  the  wranglers  finds  more  cause  of  complaint 
in  the  other's  manner  of  conduct  and  in  alleged  discourte- 
ous behavior  than  in  the  original  act  upon  which  the  con- 
troversy is  based.  In  the  beginning  the  most  heated  com- 
plaints at  Tokyo  were  not  that  immigrants  were  excluded, 
but  at  the  manner  in  which  it  was  done;  at  the  alleged  dis- 
courtesy of  a  change  of  policy  and  of  construction  of  the 
law  by  Hawaii  without  the  slightest  notice  to  Japan,  whose 
people  were  thereby  injured;  at  the  alleged  brusque  refusal 
of  the  Hawaiian  foreign  minister  to  allow  counsel  to  see  the 
rejected  immigrants,  and  at  other  similar  alleged  rude- 
nesses. Some  of  the  Hawaiian  officials,  on  the  other  hand, 
found  in  the  tone  of  Count  Okuma's  first  communication  in 
the  immigration  controversy  an  arrogance  of  assumption 
which  would  not  in  their  opinion  have  been  employed  in 
dealing  with  a  strong  nation  toward  which  a  show  of  cour- 
tesy was  necessary. 

Another  Japanese  grievance  against  Hawaii  which  ri 
valed  in  intensity  that  based  upon  the  exclusion  of  immi- 
grants was  the  increase  by  the  Hawaiian  government  of 


149 

the  duty  on  sake,  tin*  -Japanese  intoxicant,  from  15  cents 
to  S>1  per  gallon,  a  duty  almost  prohibitive.  The  new  tariff 
goes  into  effect  to-day,  and  the  Peking,  which  brought  an- 
nexation news  to  the  satisfaction  of  part  of  the  community, 
brought  also,  to  the  delight  of  the  Japanese,  a  vast  ship 
load  of  sake,  which  was  yesterday  unloaded  and  put  through 
the  custom  house  at  a  saving  of  nearly  $25,000  on  the  duty  in 

force  lo-dav. 

• 

TWO    SUPERSENSITIVE    OPPONENTS. 

Both  of  the  contending  governments  are  exceedingly  sen- 
sitive and  apprehensive  lest  they  be  treated  otherwise  than 
with  the  deference  that  is  due  to  independent  civilized  na- 
tions. Japan  is  just  entering  the  family  of  treaty  powers, 
and  is  very  much  afraid  that  she  will  not  be  recognized  by 
everybody  as  on  terms  of  equality.  She  is  quick  to  view 
as  insulting  any  apparent  discrimination  against  her.  As 
a  new-comer  in  a  more  elevated  stage  of  international  so- 
ciety she  suspects  every  one  of  a  disposition  to  snub  her,  to 
laugh  at  the  cut  of  her  garments  and  to  criticise  her  man- 
ners. Hawaii  is  a  nation,  but  not  a  power,  lacking  organ- 
ized army  and  navy,  and  a  homogeneous,  loyal  population 
from  which  to  develop  military  strength.  To  be  sure,  one 
of  the  Japanese  papers  said  that  the  excluded  immigrants 
were  induced  to  return  to  their  steamer  by  the  firing  of 
blank  cartridges  from  the  guns  in  the  Honolulu  forts.  But 
unfortunately  the  forts  and  the  guns  in  the  forts  of  Hono 
lulu  are  as  blank  as  the  alleged  cartridges. 

Japan,  wrhich  has  won  recognition  as  a  treaty  power 
mainly  through  recent  achievements  in  war,  is  surprised 
and  shocked  at  the  "high-handed"  acts  and  words  of  this 
little  republic,  which  has  neither  army,  navy  nor  fortifica- 
tions to  entitle  it  to  consideration.  And  the  Anglo-Saxon 
republic  fiercely  resents  what  it  considers  the  threatening 
arrogance  of  a  Mongolian  power,  which  has  merely  fur- 
nished it  with  coolie  laborers  for  its  sugar  plantations,  and 
upon  that  fact  alone  bases  an  effort  to  intimidate,  dominate 
and  finally  absorb  it. 

TRANSFORMATION    OF    THE    JAPANESE. 

Undoubtedly  the  Japanese  coolies  came  to  Hawaii  as  semi- 
slaves,  merely  to  labor  for  a  contract  period  of  servitude  and 
to  return  to  Japan.  They  were  not  recognized  as  among 
the  responsible  people  of  the  islands  any  more  than  was 


150 

the  Asiatic  buffalo,  imported  to  work  in  the  rice  fields.  But 
the  Old  has  been  transformed  into  the  New  Japan,  and  be 
fore  the  eyes  of  alarmed  Hawaii  a  similar  transformation 
is  working  in  the  25,000  Japanese  within  its  borders,  who 
seem  to  be  preparing  to  say:  "We  work,  but  we  are  no 
longer  mere  coolies,  slavishly  lacking  human  rights.  We 
can  fight,  we  are  of  the  race  which  has  just  whipped  China. 
We  are  of  the  nation  which  has  won  through  treaties  with 
the  other  civilized  powers  recognition  for  its  people  as  the 
equal  of  all  others  in  the  world.  We  like  this  country,  and 
we  are  here  to  stay,  and  to  increase  our  numbers  from  Ja 
pan  at  pleasure,  with  all  the  rights  that  belong  to  anybody 
else,  and  our  strong  home  government,  one  of  the  greatest 
of  the  Great  Powers,  will  protect  us  in  these  rights.  If 
the  islands  are  to  have  a  representative  form  of  government, 
we  mean  to  vote,  and  through  unlimited  immigration  we 
shall  very  soon  dominate  such  a  government.  If  force  is  to 
decide  we  have  already  enough  fighting  adults  on  the  islands 
to  put  to  flight  any  army  that  the  rest  of  the  population  can 
bring  against  them,  and  we  are  largely  increasing  that  num- 
ber every  month."  The  Japanese  camel  has  its  nose  and 
head  in  the  warmth  and  shelter  of  the  Hawaiian  tent,  and 
now  threatens  to  enter  fully,  to  kick  out  its  deluded  host 
and  to  become  exclusive  occupant.  This  coolie  laborer,  en- 
tering for  the  purpose  of  harmless  and  useful  servitude, 
now  threatens,  the  Hawaiians  fear,  to  be  transformed  into 
a  ruler. 

"SUAVITER    IN    MODO,    FORTITER    IN    RE." 

The  supersensitiveness  of  Japan  suggests  the  wisdom  of 
the  most  scrupulous  care  on  the  part  of  the  United  States 
in  the  observance  of  all  the  formalities  and  niceties  of  in- 
ternational etiquette  in  diplomatic  dealings  with  that  na- 
tion. The  United  States  will,  of  course,  frame  its  tariff 
and  decide  the  question  of  Hawaiian  annexation  in  accord 
ance  with  the  dictates  of  its  judgment,  irrespective  of  Jap- 
anese protests,  but  in  its  method  of  reaching  results  which 
may  be  displeasing  to  Japan  it  can  afford  to  go  to  the  ex- 
treme limit  of  international  courtesy.  Japan  has  been  and' 
is  a  friend  of  the  United  States,  and  that  friendship  should 
not  be  impaired  by  any  neglect  in  the  observance  of  formali- 
ties. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  opportunities  for  the  charge  of 
discourtesy  have  been  permitted  to  arise  in  the  dealings  be- 
tween Hawaii  and  Japan.  But  Hawaii  believes  that  the 


151 

action  which  she  has  taken,  maintained  as  she  has  main 
tained  it,  is  necessary  to  the  very  existence  of  American 
republican  government  in  the  islands,  and  she  holds  that 
the  alleged  discourtesies  on  her  part  are  mere  pretexts  of 
Japan  to  excuse  any  arrogant  or  forcible  action  by  that  gov- 
ernment in  pursuance  of  a  fixed  policy  to  hold  the  islands 
in  statu  quo  until  that  data  in  the  future,  when,  having 
meanwhile  made  the  population  overwhelmingly  Japanese 
tli rough  immigration,  she  can  safely  absorb  them.  It  is 
possible,  however,  that  Hawaii  could  have  done  what  was 
necessary  in  the  matter  without  furnishing  to  Japan  so 
many  plausible  pretexts  for  anger. 

NO    HINT    OF    WAR    IN    JAPAN'S    PROTEST. 

Events  have  fully  disclosed  Japan's  ambition  concerning 
Hawaii.  She  naturally  deplores  annexation  by  America, 
for  that  event,  speedily  accomplished,  is  the  only  certain  pre- 
ventive of  the  success  of  her  shrewd  waiting  game  in  re- 
spect to  the  islands.  But  Japan's  great  hopes  and  profound 
fears  for  the  immediate  future,  as  I  have  already  suggested 
in  the  Star,  relate  to  Asia  and  not  to  the  mainland  or  islands 
of  America,  and  all  the  indications  are  to  the  effect  that 
nothing  more  than  a  verbal  protest  would  be  elicited  from 
her  by  immediate  annexation. 

If,  however,  the  United  States  and  Japan  should  unex 
{•( ctedly  be  thrown  into  collision,  the  latter  would  have  the 
advantage  so  far  as  immediate  control  of  the  islands  is  con- 
cerned. There  are  approximately  20,000  male  adults  among 
the  Japanese  here.  Some  of  them  served  in  the  recent  war 
against  China,  many  of  them  have  received  the  drill  of  con- 
scripts. Control  of  the  sea  for  a  time  is  necessary  to  arm 
them  fully.  But  the  Naniwa,  the  Japanese  protected  cruiser 
in  Honolulu,  is  through  her  rapid-fire  guns  superior  in  bat- 
tery to  the  Philadelphia,  is  better  protected  and  carries  more 
men.  It  may  reasonably  be  assumed  that  our  officers  are 
more  skillful  in  naval  warfare,  and  that  individually  as 
fighters  our  men  are  stronger  than  the  Japanese;  but  out- 
fighting machine  is  inferior.  The  maxim  that  Providence 
favors  the  heavier  artillery  is  not  confined  in  its  application 
to  the  land.  In  the  close  quarters  of  Honolulu  harbor  the 
guns  which  can  throw  the  most  metal  in  a  minute  are  very 
apt  to  first  strike  a  vital  spot.  The  climate  of  Honolulu  is 
delightful,  and  its  harbor  furnishes  to-day  a  healthful  and 
inviting  station  for  one  of  the  strongest  of  our  modern  war- 
ships. 


APPENDIX. 


FINANCES 


OF    THE 


National  Capital  Partnership 


BY 


THEODORE  W.  NOYES, 


PRESIDENT  OF  THE 


Washington  Board  of  Trade. 


An  abstract  of  remarks  made  before  the  District  and  Appropri- 
ation Committees  of  the  Fifty-Fifth  Congress. 


Printed  by  the  WASHINGTON   BOARD   OF  TRADE. 


PRKSS  OF 
Til  OS.   W.   CADICK. 


FINANCES 

OF  THE 

National  Capital  Partnership. 


Whenever  appropriations  for  the  District  of  Columbia 
under  the  organic  act  of  1878  are  under  discussion; 

Whenever  a  violation  of  the  letter  or  spirit  of  this  organic 
art  is  proposed,  as.  for  instance,  in  suburban  street  exten- 
sion and  improvement  solely  at  the  local  taxpayers'  ex- 
pense; 

And  whenever  a  raising  of  the  District's  standard  of 
assessment  and  a  consequent  increase  of  the  local  burden  of 
taxation  are  threatened; 

The  suggestion  or  direct  statement  is  made  at  the  Capitol 
that  Washingtonians  are  mendicants,  dependent  upon  the 
national  bounty,  un taxed  or  lightly  taxed,  and  draining, 
vampire-like,  the  life  blood  of  every  Congressman's  tax- 
burdened  constituents. 

Universal  appreciation  of  the  truth  concerning  the 
financial  relations  of  the  nation  and  the  national  capital  and 
concerning  the  actual  weight  of  taxation  borne  by  the  Wash- 
in  gtoniaii  is  of  vital  importance  to  the  local  community- 

I. 

The  primary  'responsibility  for  the  support  and  develop- 
ment of  the  national  capital  is  upon  the  nation  ;  and 
Congress,  not  the  people  of  the  federal  District,  fixes  the 
amount  of  the  latter1  s  tax  contribution  toward  the  cost  of 
ihv  capital's  maintenance. 

The  original  owners  of  Washington  donated  five-  sevenths 
of  the  city's  soil  and  yielded  the  right  of  self-government 
to  the  nation  on  the  understanding  and  implied  agreement 
that  the  nation  was  to  build  up  here  a  magnificent  capital 
ONE  District  of  Columbia. 


at  its  own  expense,  reimbursing  itself  in  part  from  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  sale  of  the  donated  lots.  A  pretentious  city  was 
planned  and  lots  were  sold  by  the  Government  on  the 
strength  of  this  understanding.  Patrick  Henry  complained 
that  the  residents  of  the  District  might,  under  the  arrange- 
ment, "enjoy  exclusive  emoluments  to  the  great  injury  of  the 
rest  of  the  people,"  and  pamphlet  protest  was  entered 
against  Congress  meeting  all  the  needs  of  the  capital,  on  the 
ground  that  the  independence  and  self-respect  of  its  citizens 
would  be  degraded.  It  was  from  the  beginning,  in  theory 
at  least,  the  city  of  the  nation,  and  not  the  city  of  its  resi- 
dents, and  the  primary  responsibility  for  its  development 
has  always  been  in  equity  upon  the  nation,  and  the  resi- 
dents who  have  no  voice  in  the  disposition  of  the  money 
exacted  from  them,  are  the  incidental  contributors. 

In  spite  of  this  conceded  relation  of  nation  and  capital, 
the  local  taxpayers  of  the  District  for  three-fourths  of  a 
century  were  compelled  to  assume  practically  the  entire 
burden  of  capital-making,  the  nation  violating  and  neglect- 
ing the  obligations  which  it  had  incurred.  In  1878  the 
amount  of  the  contributions  of  the  resident  taxpayers 
toward  the  expenses  of  the  capital  was  fixed  by  law  at  one- 
half  the  total  amount,  the  nation  tardily  and  inadequately 
fulfilling  its  original  agreement.  The  people  of  Washington, 
under  this  agreement,  make  a  double  contribution.  First, 
as  American  citizens,  paying  national  taxes  direct  and  in- 
direct, they  contribute  their  proportionate  share  of  the 
national  money  expended  on  the  capital,  and,  second,  as 
local  taxpayers  they  contribute  an  amount  equal  to  that 
supplied  by  the  people  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole,  in- 
cluding themselves.  They  are  thus  assessed  on  both  sides  of 
the  partnership,  and  they  are  the  only  contributors  who 
have  no  say  in  the  partnership  affairs,  for  they  are  American 
citizens  only  for  the  purpose  of  taxation  and  military  service, 
and  not  for  the  purpose  of  representation  in  the  national 
legislature,  which  controls  all  the  partnership  concerns. 

II. 

The  burden  imposed  by  Congress  upon  the  local  taxpayer 
is  fully  as  heavy  as  that  which  the  average  self-governing 


5 


American  municipality  imposes  upon  itself,  and  in  view 
of  the  peculiar  disabilities  under  which  the  District  of 
Columbia  labors,  its  tax  is  harder  to  meet  than  that  of  the 
average  American  community. 

Let  us  see  with  what  tenderness  for  the  "untaxed"  resi- 
dent taxpayers  Congress  has  attended  to  Washington's 
financial  concerns.  Extra  Census  Bulletin  No.  65,  concerning 
the  finances  of  municipalities  having  4,000  or  more  of  popu- 
lation in  1890,  shows  that  the  per  capita  indebtedness  of 
the  Washingtonian  is  greater  than  that  of  the  resident  of 
any  other  very  large  American  city,  with  the  single  exception 
of  Jersey  City,  and  that  the  per  capita  tax  levy  upon  the 
Washingtonian  is  greater  than  that  of  the  citizens  of  the 
vast  majority  of  municipalities,  and  fully  up  to  the  aver- 
age exaction  from  the  residents  of  cities  approximating  it 
in  size.  Census  Commissioner  Wright,  in  his  preface  to 
the  bulletin,  pertinently  remarks:  "In  comparing  the  rates 
of  taxation  between  the  several  places  it  should  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  relation  of  the  assessed  valuation  to  the  true 
valuation  varies  greatly,  and  what  is  apparently  a  high  rate 
of  taxation  may  be  owing  not  to  an  excessive  levy,  but  to 
the  low  value  placed  upon  the  property  assessed,  requiring 
the  rate  to  be  correspondingly  high  in  order  to  yield  the  de- 
sired revenue.  It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  the  taxation 
per  capita  represents  more  nearly  the  relative  burdens  im- 
posed by  the  tax  levy." 

Let  us  compare  the  taxation  and  indebtedness  of  Wash- 
ington with  that  of  several  cities  approximating  it  in  size: 


Per  capita 
tax  levy. 

Per  capita 
indebted- 
ness. 

Omaha  

$798 

$12.93 

Allegheny  ....                     

9.04 

14.51 

Indianapolis  

10.49 

17.51 

Washington  

10.69 

85.86 

Cleveland  .  .         

11.17 

23.51 

Newark  

11,21 

46.62 

Milwaukee  

11.65 

14.26 

[XOTE. — It  is  to  be  remembered  that  in  all  the  census  figures  of  1890 
Washington  means  the  original  city  alone,  and  does  not  include  George- 
town and  the  outlying  District.]  . 


These  figures  show  that  the  average  Washingtonian  is  as 
heavy  a  taxpayer  and  labors  under  many  times  as  heavy  a 
burden  of  municipal  indebtedness  as  the  average  taxpayer 
in  the  cities  enumerated.  Not  one  of  these  cities  has  so 
large  a  percentage  of  floating  non-taxpaying  population  as 
the  capital,  with  its  one-third  negro  population  fcnd  its  thou- 
sands of  temporary  visitors  and  the  Government  employees, 
and  this  non-taxpaying  population  reduces  the  nominal  per 
capita  tax  levy  without  reducing  it  in  fact  by  cash  Contribu- 
tions. Not  one  of  the  cities  enumerated  has  so  few  money- 
making  resources  in  manufactures,  trade  and  commerce,  in 
proportion  to  its  population,  to  meet  this  drain  of  taxation. 

The  tax  burdens  of  the  suffering  citizens  of  St.  Louis  and 
Chicago  and  of  the  "untaxed"  Washingtonian  compare  as 
follows: 


Per  capita 
tax  levy. 

Per  capita 
indebted- 
ness. 

Washington    

$10  65 

$85  86 

St.  Louis  

11.84 

47.87 

Chicago  

12.80 

11.98 

This  census  bulletin  also  shows  that  Washington  has  a 
greater  per  capita  municipal  tax  levy  than  809  of  the  1083 
American  municipalities  exceeding  4,000  in  population. 


Municipalities  exceeding  4,000  in  population  compared  with  Washington  in 

/»•/•  ,-njiitn   t<i.r  /.<//. 


States. 


Less 
than 
Wash- 
ington 
in  tax 
levy. 


Alabama 8  2 

Arizoi  a 1 

Arkansas 5 

California 1  18 

Colorado 7 

Connecticut 33  4 

Delaware 2    

Florida. . , 2  3 

Georgia  3  9 

Illinois :;s  4 

Indiana 30  7 

Iowa 17  6 

Kan&as 8  11 

Kentucky 13  3 

Louisiana l  2 

Maine , 16  10 

Maryland 5  l 

Massachusetts 56  46 

Michigan 31  8 

Minnesota 6  6 

Mississippi 2  4 

Missouri 26  3 

Montana : 2 

Nebraska , 7  3 

Nevada i  1    

New  Hampshire 8  4 

New  Jersey 21  7 

New  York j  149  29 

North  Carolina 12    

North  Dakota 2 

Ohio 43  26 

Oregon 2  2 

Pennsylvania 79  3 

Rhode  Island 14  3 

South  Dakota 1 

Tennessee 4  4 

Texas .• 11  11 

Utah 2  2 

Vermont 8  2 

Virginia 11 

Washington 

West  Virginia 3 

Wisconsin -'•'  6 

Wyoming 1  1 

Total . .  809  274 


Greater 
than 
Wash- 
ington 
in  tax 
levy. 


TAX  RATE  AND  TAX  ASSESSMENT. 


Further  use  may  be  made  of  these  census  bulletins  to  show 
that  Washington's  tax  assessment  is  higher  than  that  of 
most  other  municipalities  approximating  it  in  size,  and  that 
consequently  its  apparent  low  rate  ($1.50  per  $100)  gives  a 
false  idea  concerning  its  actual  tax  burden.  The  census 
bulletin  states  the  actual  and  assessed  value  of  real  estate  in 
parallel  columns,  explaining  that  "the  true  value  is  as  re- 
ported to  this  office  by  local  officers  or  others  believed  to  be 
familiar  with  real  estate  values  in  their  respective  locali- 
ties." The  statements  of  actual  values  are  in  many  cases, 
perhaps,  in  all,  underestimates,  but  the  comparative  showing 
in  respect  to  the  different  cities  is  interesting  and  significant. 
In  Washington  the  assessed  value  is  so  much  nearer  the 
actual  value  than  in  other  cities  that  it  is  put  as  the  same. 
The  showing  in  respect  of  the  municipalities  already  cited  is 
as  follows: 


True  Value. 

Assessed  Value. 

Washington  

$123,110,219 

$123,110,219 

Omaha  

'    99,948,575 

16,315,645 

Indianapolis  

78,138,610 

39,069,305 

Allegheny  City  

100,448,120 

47,859,475 

Cleveland  

200,000,000 

72,734,940 

Milwaukee  

140,646,000 

85,603,020 

Newark  

132,789,960 

88,526,640 

St.  Louis  

342,933,710 

212,131.450 

Chicago  

1,250,000,000 

170,554,147 

The  true  value  of  Chicago  real  estate,  as  reported  to  Mr. 
Stead  in  his  investigation  there,  was  2,000  millions,  instead 
of  the  1,250  millions  with  which  it  is  credited  in  the  census 
bulletin,  and  there  are  other  underestimates.  But  even 
according  to  the  census  statement,  the  assessed  value  of 
Omaha's  real  estate  is  less  than  one-sixth  of  its  actual  value; 
of  Indianapolis,  one-half;  of  Allegheny  City,  less  than  one- 
half;  of  Cleveland,  less  than  one-fourth,  and  of  Chicago,  less 
than  one-seventh. 

The  same  results  are  reached  when  the  per  capita  tax 
levy,  showing  the  actual  tax  burden,  is  compared  with  the 


rate  of  taxation,  Washington,  in  spite  of  its  low  rate,  being 
burdened  equally  as  heavily  on  account  of  its  high  assess- 
ment. 


Rate. 

Per  capita 
tax  levy. 

Washington  

$1.50 

$10.65 

Omaha  

5.61 

7.98 

1  in  1  iaiui  pi  >1  is  .    ...          

1.90 

10.4!t 

Allegheny  City              

1.63 

9.04 

Cleveland  

2.93 

11.17 

Milwaukee  

2.26 

11.65 

Newark  

1.81 

11.21 

St.  Louis  

2.19 

11.84 

Chicago  .           

6.42 

12.80 

Judging  by  the  rate  of  taxation  the  citizen  of  Omaha  is 
taxed  more  than  three  times  as  heavily  as  the  resident  of 
Washington,  and  the  citizen  of  Chicago  more  than  four 
times  as  heavily;  but,  owing  to  the  low  assessment  of  these 
two  cities,  the  Omahaite  pays  less  in  actual  cash  into  the 
treasury  than  the  Washingtonian  and  the  Chicago! te  only 
a  trifle  more. 

Tn  view  of  the  effort  to  raise  the  standard  and  amount  of 
the  District's  tax  assessment  by  increasing  undervaluations 
instead  of  lowering  overvaluations  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  the  local  assessment  is  already  in  the  aggregate  grossly 
excessive  when  compared  with  those  of  other  American 
municipalities.  The  slightest  examination  in  detail  of  the 
tables  already  printed  and  of  other  figures  furnished  by 
Extra  Census  Bulletin  No.  65,  demonstrates  conclusively  the 
truth  of  this  statement. 


THE   ASSESSMENT   OF   WASHINGTON. 

The  assessed  and  taxed  fraction  of  Washington  is  less  than 
one  half  of  the  entire  area,  the  Government  owning  the 
exempted  remainder.  It  appears  that  this  half  of  the  capital 
is  assessed  at  more  than  seven  times  the  value  of  all  Omaha, 
more  than  three  times  the  value  of  all  Indianapolis,  75  per 
cent  more  than  the  value  of  all  the  great  city  of  Cleveland, 
and  ten  millions  iiore  than  two-thirds  of  the  assessment  of 


10 

Chicago,  with  its  vast  area — more  than  1,000,000  inhabi- 
tants— and  its  numerous  and  costly  buildings  and  fine 
residences. 

Washington  (population  188,932,  according  to  the  census 
of  1890)  had  less  than  one-fifth  of  the  population  of  Chicago 
(population  1.099.850),  while  its  assessment  wras  much  over 
two  thirds  of  that  of  Chicago.  In  other  words,  Chicago  had 
more  than  fiA'e  times  the  population  and  only  one  and  one- 
third  times  the  assessed  valuation  of  the  taxed  half  of  Wash- 
ington. The  assessment  of  the  whole  of  Washington,  in- 
cluding the  Government's  exempted  half,  would  amount  to 
seventy-six  millions  more  than  that  of  all  Chicago. 

The  assessed  half  of  Washington  ($123,110,219)  is  assessed 
at  nearly  a  million  more  than  the  combined  assessments  of 
Cleveland,  Ohio  ($72,734,940),  and  the  following  largest 
cities  of  their  respective  States  thrown  in  for  good  measure: 
Portland,  Oreg.  ($18,025,175);  Des  Moines,  Iowa  (fll,:{:J4.- 
440);  Sioux  Falls,  S.  Dak.  ($5,730,000);  Cheyenne,  WTO. 
($3.000,000);  Kansas  City,  Ivans.  ($7,941,933);  Fargo,  X.  Dak. 
i*1.'.K»0,479);  Tucson,  Ariz.  ($781,160);  Virginia  City,  Xev. 
($868.848)— $122,376,975. 

The  aggregated  population  of  the  cities  in  the  above  list 
amounts  to  437,339,  as  against  188,932  for  Washington,  as 
follows:  Cleveland,  261,353;  Portland.  Oreg.,  46,385;  Des 
Moines,  50,093;  Sioux  Falls.  10,177;  Cheyenne,  11,690; 
Kansas  City,  Kans.,  38,316;  Fargo,  5,664;  Tucson,  5,150; 
Virginia  City,  8,511. 

The  assessed  half  of  Washington  (population  188,932; 
$123,110,219)  exceeds  by  more  than  $1,000,000  the  combined 
assessments  of  Detroit,  Mich.  ($105,556,478),  and  Omaha, 
Xebr.  isfl(;.:n5,645)— $121,872,123.  Detroit  (205,876)  was 
more  populous  than  Washington.  Omaha  was  nearly  as 
populous  (140.452).  Both  are  richer  cities,  Detroit  far  richer 
in  property  and  resources. 

Of  these  cities  the  aggregated  populations  are  346,328,  as 
follows:  Detroit,  205.876;  Omaha,  140,452. 

Turning  to  the  South,  the  assessed  half  of  Washington 
(1123,110,219)  exceeds  the  whole  of  New  Orleans,  with 
242,039  of  population,  over  50,000  larger  than  Washington 
in  1890.  with  a  number  of  other  cities,  the  largest  in  their 


11 


respective  States,  thrown  in,  as  follows:  New  Orleans. 
ss7.6r,2,430;  San  Antonio.  Tex..  $16,282,1  ±.';  Mobil,-.  Ala.. 
s!).:;:!7,7r>r>;  Wilmington,  X.  C.,  $3,756,682;  Key  West.  Fla.. 
xi'.i::7.ir,l  ;  Vicksburg,  Miss.,  $3.<>sr),49<>;  total,  $122,851,546. 
Of  this  list  the  aggregated  populations  are  362,297,  as  fol- 
lows: New  Orleans,  iML'. 0:',!>;  San  Antonio,  37,673;  Mobile, 
:n.l)7i;:  Wilmington.  X.  C.j  20.or,6:  Key  West.  18,080;  Vicks- 
l»n rg,  13.:573. 

The  12  municipalities  of  Georgia  exceeding  4,000  in  popu- 
lation.  including  Atlanta,  Savannah,  Augusta,  etc.,  have  a 
combined  assessed  valuation  of  $87,871,859.  The  10  muni- 
cipalities of  Alabama  exceeding  4,000  in  population,  includ- 
ing Birmingham,  Mobile,  .Montgomery,  Anniston,  etc.,  have 
a  combined  assessed  valuation  of  $43,697,746.  Georgia  and 
Alabama  municipalities  combined  aggregate  $131,569, ()0.">. 
Thus  the  assessed  half  of  Washington  is  valued  at  only 
ss.oiio.nuo  less  than  the  combined  valuation  of  all  the  cities 
and  towns  i±.»  in  number)  in  the  great  States  of  Georgia  and 
Alabama. 

The  assessed  half  of  Washington  is  assessed  at  seventeen 
times  as  much  the  whole  of  the  city  of  Xewburgh,  X  Y .. 
while  Washington  has  only  eight  times  the  population  of 
.\e\vburgh.  Its  assessed  valuation  is  about  the  same  as  those 
of  Rochester  and  Syracuse  combined,  while  the  aggregate 
population  of  these  two  cities  exceeds  that  of  Washington 
bv  more  than  30,000. 

«  % 


City. 

Population. 

Assessed  value 
of  real  estate. 

Washington  .                                

188,932 

$123,110,219; 

Newburgh            

23,087 

7,729,035 

Syracuse  '.  

88,143 

40,397,516 

Rochester  

133,896 

83,646,622 

Kansas  City,  Mo.,  has  70  per  cent  of  Washington's  popu- 
lation and  only  49  per  cent  of  its  assessed  valuation. 
Omitting  St.  Louis,  the  28  Missouri  cities  exceeding  4,000 
in  population  have  a  combined  population  of  349,799  and  a 
combined  tax  assessment  valuation  of  $103.822,801.  Thus 
these  28  cities,  with  a  population  nearly  double  that  of 


12 


Washington,  are  valued  by  the  assessors  at  $20,000,000  less 
than  the  assessed  half  of  Washington.  Changing  the  form 
of  the  statement,  the  assessed  half  of  Washington  is  valued 
at  $20,000,000  more  than  all  of  the  28  Missouri  cities,  omit- 
ting St.  Louis,  but  including  Kansas  City. 

It  has  already  been  shown  that  Chicago  has  more  than 
five  times  the  population  of  Washington,  while  the  assessed 
valuation  of  the  capital  is  more  than  two-thirds  of  that  of 
the  great  Western  metropolis.  The  44  cities  of  Illinois  ex- 
ceeding 4,000  in  population,  omitting  Chicago,  have  a  com- 
bined population  of  496,846  and  a  combined  tax  assessment 
of  $51,902,277.  Thus  these  cities  have  more  than  two  and 
one-half  times  the  population  of  Washington,  while  the 
assessed  half  of  Washington  has  nearly  two  and  one-half 
times  as  large  an  assessed  valuation  as  these  aggregated 
cities.  In  other  words,  the  assessed  half  of  Washington  is 
valued  at  more  than  $70,000,000  in  excess  of  the  combined 
values  of  all  the  Illinois  cities,  44  in  number,  omitting 
Chicago.  Peoria,  the  nearest  Illinois  city  to  Washington  in 
population,  has  more  than  one-fifth  of  Washington's  popu- 
lation and  only  about  one  twenty-fourth  of  Washington's 
assessed  real  estate  valuation. 


City. 

Population. 

Assessed  value 
of  real  estate. 

Washington  

188.932 

$123,110,219 

Peoria  

41.024 

5  337,470 

Chicago  

1,099  850 

170  554  147 

COMPARED  WITH   COMMERCIAL   CITIES. 

In  comparing  the  assessed  valuation  of  Washington  with 
that  of  the  commercial  and  manufacturing  cities  like  Cleve- 
land, Chicago,  Milwaukee,  New  Orleans,  and  Detroit,  for 
instance,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  Washington  lacks  the 
millions  of  taxable  property  which  are  found  in  the  Ameri- 
can business  city  in  the  twenty-story  skyscrapers,  in  the 
solid  blocks  of  business  establishments,  and  in  the  ware- 
houses and  factories.  Washington's  greatest  and  almost  only 
conspicuous  and  notable  factories  are  the  Government  work- 


13 


shops,  such  as  the  Bureau  of  Engraving  and  Printing  and 
the  Government  Printing  Office.  Washington's  greatest 
business  establishments  are  the  Government  Departments, 
with  their  thousands  of  employees.  These  factories  and 
these  business  establishments  cut  no  figure  in  Washington's 
assessed  valuation,  for  they  are  within  the  exempted  half  of 
I  he  capital,  which  belongs  to  the  nation. 

How  ridiculously  low  would  be  the  assessed  valuation  of 
any  of  these  commercial  and  manufacturing  cities  if  its  list 
of  taxable  property  were  similarly  treated  and  there  were 
stricken  therefrom  its  principal  factories  and  business  estab- 
lishments. How  quickly  would  the  people  of  any  of  these 
cities  perceive  and  complain  that  their  assessment  valuation 
was  excessive  if  after  such  eliminations  their  city's  tax  valu- 
ation was  greater  than  that  of  some  equally  populous  neigh- 
bor, whose  tax  list  had  not  been  thus  curtailed.  Washing- 
ton's population  in  1894)  was  less  than  that  of  any  of  the 
cities  above  enumerated ;  less  than  one-fifth  as  large  as  that 
of  Chicago.  Its  assessed  half  lacked  the  indicated  important 
factors  of  a  business  city's  valuation,  which  cut  so  large  a 
figure  in  the  assessment  of  these  other  cities,  yet  the  valu- 
ation of  the  assessed  half  of  Washington  was,  as  has  been 
said,  more  than  two-thirds  of  that  of  the  whole  of  rich 
<  'liicago,  11G  per  cent  of  that  of  Detroit,  140  per  cent  of  that 
of  New  Orleans,  143  per  cent  of  that  of  Milwaukee,  and  169 
per  cent  of  that  of  prosperous  and  busy  Cleveland. 


City. 

Population 
(1890). 

Assessed  value 
of  real  estate. 

Washington  

188  932 

$123  110  219 

Chicago  

1  099  850 

170  554  147 

Detroit  

205  876 

105  556  476 

New  Orleans  

242,039 

87,652  430 

Milwaukee  

294,468 

85  l>03  020 

Cleveland  

261  353 

72  734  940 

SINCE   THE   CENSUS. 

In  order  to  take  advantage  of  the  census  figures  for  the 
purpose  of  making  comparisons,  it  is,  of  course,  necessary 
to  utilize  the  assessments  of  1890,  but  the  changes  since 


14 

then  in  Washington  assessments  have  not  been  made  in  the 
direction  of  comparative  reduction,  but  have,  on  the  con- 
trary, it  is  believed,  increased  the  disproportion  between  the 
capital's  excessive  assessment  and  those  of  other  American 
municipalities.  In  the  census  year  Washington's  assess- 
ment was  $123,110,219;  in  1898  this  valuation,  including  that 
of  Georgetown,  has  enlarged  to  f!59,559,921,  an  increase  of 
nearly  30  per  cent,  which  will  more  than  hold  its  own,  it  is 
believed,  in  comparison  with  those  of  most  other  Ameri- 
can municipalities. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  also  in  this  connection  that  other 
American  cities  are  steadily  enlarging  their  boundaries  and 
by  direct  annexation  increasing  from  year  to  year  by 
millions  their  assessed  valuation,  while  in  the  case  of  the 
District  of  Columbia  there  is  a  steady  reduction  in  the  abso- 
lute ainouBt  of  taxable  real  estate  ,froni  year  to  year,  cor- 
responding to  the  condemnations  made  by  the  national  Gov- 
ernment in  the  federal  District  and  the  nation's  city  for  pub- 
lic purposes.  For  instance,  in  creating  Rock  Creek  Park  and 
the  Zoological  Park  the  Government  took  nearly  2,000  acres 
of  land  from  the  District's  tax  list  and  put  them  in  the 
exempted  column.  A  similar  effect  was  produced,  for 
further  example,  when  valuable  blocks  of  land  were  con- 
demned as  the  sites  for  the  Congressional  Library  building 
and  the  so-called  city  post-office.  Clearly  where  an  increas- 
ing aggregate  valuation  is  placed  upon  a  decreasing  property 
list  the  burden  of  assessment  upon  that  property  grows 
heavier  and  heavier  with  abnormal  rapidity. 

An  increase  of  the  local  standard  of  assessment  would  be 
not  only  unjust  and  oppressive,  but  entirely  unnecessary. 
The  law  contemplates  the  raising  annually  by  taxation  in 
the  District  of  an  ascertained  amount,  being  one-half  of  the 
approved  estimates  of  the  Commissioners.  Section  48  of  the 
organic  act  of  1878  says : 

To  the  extent  to  which  Congress  shall  approve  of  said  estimates 
Congress  shall  appropriate  the  amount  of  fifty  per  centum  thereof, 
and  lht>  remaining  fifty  per  centum  of  such  approved  estimates  shall 
be  levied  and  assessed  upon  the  taxable  property  and  privileges  in 
said  District  other  than  the  property  of  the  United  States  and  of  the 
District  of  Columbia. 


15 

The  tax  levy  baaed  on  thr  present  assessment  raises  more 
from  year  to  year  than  suffices  to  meet  one  half  of  the  ap- 
proved estimates.  The  creation  of  such  surplus  through 
excessive  assessment  is  not  only  unnecessary  and  unjust,  but 
it  does  not  seem  to  be  either  contemplated  or  authorized  by 
the  law. 

TAXATION  OF  PERSONAL  PROPERTY. 

It  has  been  said  broadly  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  that  the  resident  of  the  District  of  Columbia 
pays  no  personal  taxes.  The  District  law  taxes  personal  as 
well  as  real  property  and  the  gist  of  the  accusation  is  that 
the  amount  of  assessed  personal  proi>erty  in  the  District  is 
comparatively  small.  Examination  of  the  figures  given  in 
Extra  Census  Bulletin  No.  05,  already  freely  quoted,  shows 
that  Washington  as  compared  with  other  cities  approxi- 
mating it  in  size  makes  a  reasonable  showing  of  assessed 
personal  property  and  a  remarkably  large  showing  when 
the  disabilities  tending  to  cause  the  District  property  owner 
to  claim  domicile  elsewhere  are  considered.  Personal  prop- 
erty is  taxable  where  its  owner  claims  residence.  The 
Washington  property  owner  is  induced  to  make  and  claim 
residence  elsewhere  and  to  pay  in  that  other  place  taxes  on 
his  personalty,  first,  by  his  judicial  disabilities,  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  saying  in  express  terms  that  the 
resident  of  the  District  of  Columbia  stands  in  a  more  un- 
favorable attitude  toward  the  national  judiciary  than  an 
alien,  not  being  able,  as  the  citizen  of  a  State,  to  sue  in  the 
federal  courts.  The  Washington  property  owner  finds  a 
further  and  stronger  reason  for  claiming  residence  and  pay- 
ing personal  taxes  outside  of  the  District  in  the  fact  that  the 
apportionment-of-oftices  law  in  effect  nowr  shuts  out  from 
national  employment  in  the  classified  service  the  avowed 
eiti/en  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  in  the  further  fact 
that  residence  in  the  District  bars  him  from  participation 
in  national,  state  and  municipal  elections.  It  is  to  be  re- 
membered, however,  that  the  per  capita  tax  levy  of  the 
census  bulletin  upon  the  basis  of  which  comparisons  have 
been  made  between  the  tax-burden  of  Washington  and  those 
of  other  American  cities  is  the  tax  levy  for  all  purposes  on 


16 


both  real  and  personal  property.  The  comparison  is  be- 
tween the  total  tax  burdens  of  the  respective  cities,  and  if 
in  comparison  with  some  municipalities  a  smaller  percent- 
age of  the  total  tax  is  in  Washington's  case  imposed  on  per- 
sonal property  a  larger  percentage  in  the  same  proportion 
is  in  Washington's  case  imposed  upon  its  real  property,  an 
adjustment  of  the  total  tax  burden  in  no  respect  easier  to 
bear. 

Extra  Census  Bulletin  No.  65  states  the  total  assessments 
of  real  and  personal  property  in  the  various  American  cities 
and  also  the  assessments  upon  real  estate  alone  in  the  same 
cities.  By  subtracting  the  latter  from  the  former  the  per- 
sonal property  valuations  may  be  compared.  For  the  reasons 
already  stated  Washington's  personal  property  assessment 
is  smaller  than  that  of  many  cities,  but  it  is  easy  to  find 
numerous  communities,  both  east  and  west,  which  make  a 
poorer  showing  than  Washington  in  this  regard,  though  the 
peculiar  circumstances  which  render  Washington  merely 
the  transient  residence  and  not  the  legal  domicile  of  many 
wealthy  owners  of  local  real  estate  are  lacking  in  their  cases. 


Population. 

Assessed  value 
Personal 
Property. 

Washington  

188  932 

$11  005  302 

Omaha  

140  452 

3  674  070 

Denver  

106  713 

7  255  000 

Des  Moines  

50  093 

9  597  320 

Seattle,  Wash  

42  837 

3  598  070 

Kansas  City,  Kans  

38  316 

1  Oil  386 

Sioux  Citv  

37  806 

1  6  9  731 

Brooklyn  

806  343 

14  126  407 

Buffa'o  

255  664 

10  991  125 

Jersey  City  

163  003 

5  707  750 

Rochester  

133  89(> 

5  935  700 

Albany  

!'4  ()•'.'! 

5  696  725 

Syracuse  

8S  143 

3  091  466 

Thus  in  1800  Washington's  assessed  personal  property 
equaled  in  value  those  of  Denver  and  Omaha  combined,  the 
largest,  richest  cities  in  their  respective  states,  with  a  com- 
bined population  of  247,165,  as  against  188,932  for  Wash- 
ington. 


17 

Washington's  assessed  personal  property  exceeded  the 
combined  valuations  of  Omaha,  Dos  Moines,  Kansas  Cit\. 
Kans.,  and  Seattle,  each  tin-  largest  and  wealthiest  city  <.t 
its  state,  with  a  combined  population  of  271,098  as  against 
ISS.!I:;L-  for  Washington. 

Washington's  valuation  of  personal  property  exceeded  in 
1890  that  of  wealthy,  prosperous  Buffalo,  with  66,000  more 
population  and  $26,000,000  more  of  total  assessment. 

Washington's  personal  property  valuation  was,  in  1890, 
only  $3,000,000  less  than  that  of  the  great  city  of  Brooklyn, 
with  more  than  four  times  Washington's  population  and 
over  three  times  Washington's  total  assessment. 

STATE   TAXATION. 

It  is  also  suggested  that  this  showing  of  municipal  tax- 
ation does  not  take  into  account  the  state  taxation  borne 
by  residents  of  the  cities  with  which  Washington  has  been 
compared.  The  census  bulletin  is  not  clear  upon  this  point, 
though  it  states  that  the  per  capita  tax  levy  is  "for  all 
purposes  on  real  and  personal  property."  If,  however,  state 
taxation  is  not  included,  who  has  reason  to  complain?  Why 
should  Washington,  enjoying  none  of  the  rights  and  priv- 
ileges of  a  state,  maintaining  no  legislature  to  disburse 
funds  of  its  own  raising  for  its  own  benefit,  be  viewed  as 
properly  chargeable  with  the  expenses  incident  to  the  enjoy- 
ment of  these  rights  and  privileges?  The  District  has  been 
pronounced  a  state  under  a  treaty  with  France,  a  construc- 
tion conferring  privileges  on  aliens,  but  not  a  state  under  the 
Constitution  whose  people  can  sue  in  the  federal  courts. 
The  District  is  a  State  when  direct  taxes  are  to  be  collected 
but  not  a  state  when  representatives  are  apportioned,  though 
the  Constitution  couples  the  two  things.  The  District  is  not 
a  state  to  make  and  carry  out  through  a  state  legislature 
laws  for  its  own  benefit,  but  it  is  now  reproached  on  the 
assumption  that  the  tax  burden  incident  to  the  exercise  of 
this  privilege  of  a  state  is  not  imposed  upon  it. 

The  Congress  of  the  United  States  corresponds  in  the  case 
of  the  District  to  a  state  legislature  and  consequently  state 
taxes  are  in  its  case  merged  in  its  national  taxation. 


18 

NATIONAL  TAXATION. 

The  Washingtonian  makes  a  strong  comparative  showing 
as  a  contributor  to  the  national  taxes.  The  District  has 
shared  in  every  such  tax  and  has  undergone  special  national 
burdens.  Through  its  custom  house  it  has  made  contri- 
butions to  the  national  treasury,  and  if  the  consumers  of 
dutiable  goods  pay  this  tax,  it  has  contributed-  far  above  the 
average  of  municipalities,  as  one  of  the  large  seacoast 
cities,  which  are  recognized  as  the  heaviest  consumers  of  im- 
ported and  dutiable  articles. 

The  only  national  taxes  that  fall  directly  and  unmis- 
takably and  in  ascertainable  amounts  upon  Americans  are 
the  internal-revenue  taxes.  The  States  and  Territories  which 
contributed  in  1895  less  in  internal-revenue  collections  to 
the  national  treasury  than  the  District  of  Columbia  are 
Alabama,  Arkansas,  Delaware,  Idaho,  Maine,  Mississippi, 
Montana,  Nevada,  North  Dakota,  Oregon,  South  Dakota, 
South  Carolina,  Utah,  Vermont,  Washington,  and  Wyoming 
(16  States),  and  Alaska,  Arizona,  Indian  Territory,  New 
Mexico,  and  Oklahoma  (5  Territories). 

The  per  capita  contribution  of  the  District  of  Columbia 
for  that  year  is  greater  than  that  of  Alabama,  Arkansas, 
Colorado,  Delaware,  Georgia,  Idaho,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Maine, 
Montana,  Mississippi,  Nevada,  North  Dakota,  Oregon,  South 
Dakota,  South  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Texas,  Utah,  Vermont, 
Washington,  and  Wyoming  (22  States),  and  Alaska,  Arizona, 
Indian  Territory,  New  Mexico,  and  Oklahoma  (5  Territories). 

The  District  of  Columbia  contributed  in  1895  in  internal- 
revenue  taxation  for  the  support  of  the  national  Govern- 
ment considerably  more  than  the  combined  contributions 
of  Maine,  Vermont,  Mississippi,  North  and  South  Dakota, 
Idaho,  and  Wyoming.  The  per  capita  contribution  of  the 
Washingtonian  to  this  national  fund  was  15  times  as  great 
as  that  of  the  resident  of  Alabama,  11  times  that  of  the  resi- 
dent of  Arkansas,  12  times  that  of  the  resident  of  Maine, 
11  times  that  of  the  resident  of  South  Carolina,  10  times 
that  of  the  resident  of  Vermont,  and  120  times  that  of  the 
resident  of  Mississippi. 

Does  not  the  Washingtonian  pay  enough  both  in  national 
and  local  taxes?  Is  he  in  any  respect  favored  by  the  legis- 


19 

lative  body  which,  not  chosen  by  him,  decides  for  him  all 
questions  of  equitable  taxation? 

WHICH   IS   THE   MENDICANT. 

The  figures  above  given  concerning  national  taxation 
throw  light  upon  the  question  whether  the  Western  Con- 
gressman's average  constituent  is  really  robbed  to  ease  the 
tax  burdens  of  the  mendicants  residing  in  the  District  of 
Columbia.  It  appears  that  the  contribution  of  such  con- 
stituent to  the  national  revenue  is  infinitesimal  and  in  the 
cases  cited  far  exceeded  by  the  contribution  of  the  Wash- 
ingtonian  himserf.  While  the  District  has  no  representation 
in  the  national  legislature  which  is  paid  from  and  which 
disburses  this  national  fund,  its  contribution  to  the  national 
revenue  exceeds  the  combined  contributions  of  Maine,  Ver- 
mont, Mississippi,  North  Dakota,  South  Dakota,  Idaho,  and 
Wyoming,  which  cast  fourteen  votes  in  the  Senate  and 
eighteen  in  the  House.  The  Washingtonian  pays  into  the 
fund  from  which  are  drawn  the  salaries  of  the  South 
Dakotan's  senators  and  representatives  nearly  six  times  as 
much  as  the  South  Dakotan ;  toward  the  salary  of  the  Kansas 
congressman  five  times  as  much  as  the  Kansan;  for  the 
Texan  congressman,  five  times  as  much  as  the  Texan;  for 
the  Vermont  congressman,  over  ten  times  as  much  as  the 
Vermonter;  for  the  congressman  from  South  Carolina  or 
Arkansas,  twelve  times  as  much  as  the  Arkansan  or  South 
Carolinian,  and  for  the  Mississippi  congressman  120  times  as 
much  as  the  Mississipian. 

Neither  in  the  past  nor  present,  neither  in  respect  to  money 
nor  land,  has  the  District  of  Columbia  been  a  notable 
national  beneficiary,  even  as  compared  with  the  states  of  the 
west,  in  which  a  mistaken  impression  to  this  effect  largely 
prevails. 

The  owners  of  the  soil  of  Washington  were  here  before 
the  government  came,  before  the  nation  and  government 
were  even  created.  They  gave  of  their  own  property  to  the 
government  that  the  nation  might  practically  own  and 
exclusively  control  a  national  city.  They  donated  to  the 
nation  all  but  a  small  fraction  of  the  area  of  Washington. 

The  greater  part    of    the  soil  of    most  of    the  western 


20 

states  was,  on  the  other  hand,  at  first  the  territory  of  the 
nation,  acquired  by  purchase,  conquest  or  treaty,  including 
treaties  with  the  Indians,  and  passed  by  gift  to  the  in- 
dividual settlers  under  the  homestead  and  timber-culture 
laws  and  by  nominal  sale,  but  actual  gift  under  the  pre- 
emption laws.  The  nation  wisely  donated  land  to  the  people 
who  would  live  upon  it  and  cultivate  it.  Later  when  these 
communities  of  settlers  became  states  the  nation  gave  back 
to  them  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  under  the  pre-emption  law 
in  the  shape  of  grants  of  money  for  educational  purposes 
and  added  thereto  vast  land  grants  direct,  including  over 
one  hundred  millions  of  acres  for  schools  and  colleges. 

Thus  in  the  case  of  Washington  private  individuals  were 
the  donors  and  the  nation  was  the  beneficiary;  in  the  case 
of  most  of  the  western  states  the  nation  was  the  donor  and 
the  individuals  and  communities  the  beneficiaries. 

III. 

While  the  nation  up  to  1878  exacted  an  excessive  and 
oppressive  contribution  from  the  local  tax-payers  toward 
the  upbuilding  of  the  capital  and  since  that  date  has  re- 
quired all  that  could  be  equitably  demanded,  it  has  failed 
to  carry  out  fully  its  own  obligations  toward  the  capital, 
having  shamefully  neglected  these  obligations  for  three- 
fourths  of  a  century  and  not  offering  now  to  reimburse 
payments  made  on  its  account  during  this  season  of  neglect. 

The  general  government,  by  the  fact  of  planning  a  mag- 
nificent capital,  covering  a  large  area  and  characterized  by 
broad  streets,  avenues  and  reservations  to  an  extent  un- 
suitable for  a  self-supporting  commercial  city  and  by  found- 
ing this  capital  in  a  place  comparatively  uninhabited,  as  well 
as  by  the  terms  of  the  bargain  with  the  owners  of  the  soil, 
and  by  the  declarations  of  its  representatives  at  the  founding 
of  the  city  and  afterward,  showed  an  intention  to  build  up 
a  national  city  at  the  nation's  expense,  on  a  grand  scale, 
irrespective  of  the  future  population  of  the  District.  In  con- 
nection with  the  gift  to  it  of  seventy  per  cent  of  the  soil  of 
Washington,  in  order  to  sell  lots  carved  from  this  gift,  the 
nation  promised  that  Washington  should  be  the  permanent 
seat  of  government,  and  pretended  that  this  permanent 


capital  would  be  improved  at  national  expense,  without  re- 
gard to  the  scanty  population  that  would  be  at  first  attracted 
to  it.  Having  secured  this  magnificent  donation  and  pocketed 
the  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  lots,  the  nation  utterly  failed 
to  meet  its  promises.  It  frequently  threatened  to  remove 
the  capital,  which  meant,  of  course,  the  death  of  Washing- 
ton. It  practically  abandoned  the  work  of  street  improve- 
ment and  capital  making  to  the  scanty  resident  population. 

For  more  than  thirty  years,  during  which  period  $700,000 
had  been  realized  from  the  sale  of  lots  pledged  for  the  benefit 
of  improvements,  its  expenditures  upon  streets  and  avenues, 
which  were  its  exclusive  property,  were  less  than  $700  per 
year,  and  its  annual  appropriations  since  that  time  until 
&  recent  period  in  the  city's  history  have  been  widely  varying 
in  amount  and  at  the  best  inadequate.  In  1878  the  govern- 
ment, which  had  in  the  beginning  impliedly  undertaken  to 
meet  all  the  expenses  of  capital  making,  and  then  shifted 
that  burden  in  the  main  upon  private  citizens,  decided  that 
justice  required  it  to  pay  one-half  of  the  District's  expenses. 

The  nation  has  now  returned  half-way  to  the  original  and 
appropriate  idea  of  the  federal  city.  This  guardian,  who  for 
three-fourths  of  a  century  was  unfaithful  to  his  trust,  now, 
without  making  the  slightest,  restitution  for  the  wrongs 
of  the  past,  shares  the  expenses  of  the  ward  whom  he  equit- 
ably bound  himself  in  the  beginning  to  support,  and  some 
men  call  it  charity!  The  people  of  the  District  are  not  sub- 
ject to  this  or  any  other  reproach  upon  their  public  spirit, 
so  far  as  their  relations  to  the  nation  are  concerned.  They 
have  risked  life  and  shed  blood  in  every  national  war.  They 
furnished  the  first  volunteers  and  supplied  more  troops  in 
excess  of  their  quota  in  the  civil  struggle  than  any  state 
except  one.  In  the  recent  war  with  Spain  they  gave 
similar  evidence  of  prompt  and  patriotic  energy,  their  fine 
regiment  of  volunteers  far  exceeding  their  quota  in  num- 
bers, and  equaling  in  discipline  and  soldierly  efficiency  the 
best  furnished  by  any  state  of  the  Union.  They  have  paid 
their  proportion  of  every  national  tax,  direct  and  indirect. 
They  have  contributed  in  proportion  to  population  far  more 
than  any  other  American  community  for  national  purposes. 
They  gave  to  the  nation  the  greater  part  of  the  soil  of  Wash- 


22 

ington,  an  acquisition  pronounced  by  Jefferson  ''really 
noble." 

They  thus  supplied  a  fund  from  which  most  of  the  original 
public  buildings  were  erected.  Those  that  since  then  have 
been  constructed  at  national  expense  are  offset  by  attractive 
homes  aggregating  millions  of  dollars  in  value  with  which 
they  have  adorned  the  city  and  swelled  its  ta'xable  property. 
Nearly  all  the  work  of  street  improvement  and  capital  mak- 
ing which  for  three-fourths  of  a  century  was  done  wras  done 
by  them.  From  1790  to  1878,  according  to  the  report  of  a 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  they  expended  f  14,000,000  more 
than  the  United  States  in  this  the  nation's  task,  in  addition 
to  $25,000,000  spent  on  local  government,  schools  and  for 
other  municipal  purposes.  Under  this  burden  they  worked 
themselves  into  virtual  bankruptcy  in  1835,  and  so  in  re- 
creating the  city  after  1870  the  main  expense  of  the  achieve- 
ment was  represented  by  the  grievous  debt  of  some  $20,000,- 
000.  In  both  cases  they  took  upon  themselves  national 
burdens  and  were  led  by  public-spirited  motives,  as  the 
Senate  committee  reported  in  1835,  into  expenditures  which 
did  not  properly  belong  to  them. 

These  national  expenditures  thus  assumed  by  the  District 
make  up  the  indebtedness  which  burdens  Washington  (as 
we  have  seen)  more  heavily  than  any  other  very  large  Ameri- 
can city,  save  one,  and  annually  absorbs  in  interest  and  sink- 
ing fund  and  diverts  from  needed  current  expenditures  a 
million  dollars.  Instead  of  quibbling  over  and  attempting 
to  evade  the  act  of  1878,  the  equitable  principle  recognized 
by  this  piece  of  legislation  should  be  applied  to  the  period 
before  1878,  and  reimbursement  should  be  made  for  local 
expenditures  beyond  the  proper  proportion  within  this 
period.  The  payment  of  one-half  the  District's  expenses  by 
the  United  States  as  the  untaxed  owner  of  one-half  the  city 
property  and  as  interested  to  that  extent  in  all  improve- 
ments, was  urged  by  Senator  Southard  in  1835.  He  also 
advocated  the  reimbursement  to  the  District  of  whatever 
it  had  expended  in  the  past  beyond  its  just  proportion. 
Congress  has  followed  only  one-half  of  Senator  Southard's 
advice.  If  justice  requires  that  the  government  should  pay 
a  certain  proportion  of  District  expenses  now,  both  justice 


23 

and  consistency  demand  that  it  should  pay  the  same  propor- 
tion of  the  expenses  of  the  years  of  its  indifference  and 
neglect.  It  was  shown  in  1878,  as  already  stated,  that  up 
to  date  the  citizens  of  Washington  had  expended  upon  ihe 
capital  in  excess  of  the  amount  appropriated  by  Congress 
about  $14,000,000.  A  balance  should  be  struck,  and  what- 
ever sum  is  necessary  to  make  the  expenditures  of  the  gen- 
eral government  upon  the  capital  equal  to  those  of  its  citi- 
zens should  be  credited  to  the  District. 

IV. 

The  unjust  and  iniquitous  repeal  of  the  act  of  1878 
would  be  ruinous  to  the  local  taxpayers  j  and  its  serious 
violation  as  by  its  repeal,  direct  or  indirect,  in  its  applica- 
tion to  the  portion  of  the  District  outside  of  original  Wash- 
ington, would  be  proportionately  disastrous. 

If  through  the  repeal  of  the  organic  act  of  1878  the  entire 
burden  of  capital  expenses  were  thrown  upon  the  local 
taxpayers  the  present  heavy  per  capita  tax  levy  would  be 
doubled.  A  mere  handful  of  District  taxpayers  now  raise 
annually,  to  be  expended  by  the  government,  on  the  capital, 
over  $3,000,000.  More  than  a  million  dollars  of  the  local 
revenues  are  diverted  into  interest  and  sinking  fund  charges 
in  connection  with  the  debt  contracted  by  the  agents  of  the 
government,  mainly  to  improve  the  streets,  the  government's 
exclusive  property,  in  carrying  out  the  government's  obli- 
gations to  build  up  a  capital  worthy  of  the  great  republic. 
Six  millions  now  expended  annually  for  the  capital  are  not 
enough  to  meet  the  current  reasonable  and  increasing 
municipal  needs.  Three  millions  contributed  by  the  local 
taxpayers  would  be  entirely  inadequate  to  sustain  the 
national  capital  as  it  now  exists  or  to  keep  it  in  line  of 
natural  development.  A  repudiation  of  national  obligations 
in  respect  to  the  nation's  city  would  result  either  in  a  dis- 
creditable capital,  poorly  sustained  by  reasonable  taxation 
upon  local  resources,  or  in  the  virtual  confiscation  of  local 
property  through  excessive  taxation. 

A  partial  repeal  of  the  act  of  1878,  as  by  limiting  its  appli- 
cation to  the  bounds  of  the  original  Washington,  and  by 


24 

rescinding  it  so  far  as  all  of  the  District  outside  of  the 
original  city  is  concerned,  would  work  a  corresponding  meas- 
ure of  injury  to  the  community.  At  the  last  session  of  Con- 
gress the  people  of  the  District  asked  that  body  to  amend  or 
repeal  the  so-called  highway  act  for  the  purpose  of  ridding 
the  capital  of  an  injurious  discrimination  against  that  part 
of  the  city  which  happens  to  lie  outside  the  boundaries 
of  the  original  Washington.  An  appeal  was  made  to  our 
legislature  to  refrain  from  the  obvious  injustice  of  extending 
the  grand  national  street  plan  of  the  capital  exclusively  at 
local  expense.  It  was  demonstrated  that  this  course  would 
be  outrageously  unfair  and  unendurably  oppressive.  Con- 
gress was  urged  to  amend  the  highway  act  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  repeal  section  15  of  that  act,  which  provided  that 
condemnation  damages  under  the  highway  law  should  be 
one-half  assessed  against  the  land  benefited  thereby  without 
regard  to  the  aggregate  percentage  of  actual  benefit  and  the 
other  half  charged  up  to  the  revenues  of  the  District.  Not 
only  was  the  United  States  excluded  by  this  section  from 
participation  in  the  original  condemnation  of  the  streets, 
but  the  nation  was  caused  to  repudiate  for  all  time  to  come 
financial  concern  in  the  capital  beyond  "Boundary  street" 
by  the  provision  ''that  no  expense  for  the  improvement  of 
any  street,  circle,  reservation  or  avenue  laid  out  under  the 
provisions  of  this  act  outside  of  the  cities  of  Washington 
and  Georgetown  shall  be  charged  to  the  Treasury  of  the 
United  States,  but  such  expense  shall  be  paid  solely  out  of 
the  revenues  of  the  District  of  Columbia."  This  provision 
was  a  repeal  by  indirection  of  the  organic  act  of  1878  so 
far  as  the  new  Washington  beyond  Boundary  street  is  con- 
cerned, and  was  a  precedent  pointing  the  way  to  the  entire 
destruction  of  that  equitable  statute. 

Congress  heeded  the  urgent  appeal  made  to  it,  and  among 
the  amendments  of  the  highway  act  passed  at  the  last  session 
was  one  repealing  section  fifteen.  Congress  thereby  con- 
demned and  repudiated  the  proposal  embodied  in  the  high- 
way law  of  1SJ>:J  to  extend  the  grand  national  plan  of  the 
original  city  over  the  misfit  subdivisions  and  unsubdivided 
land  of  the  suburbs  entirely  at  local  expense.  The  law  of 
ISTs  now  applies  to  all  municipal  expenditures,  including 


25 

those  for  condemning  and  improving  streets,  in  all  parts  •  >(' 
the  District  without  any  exception  whatsoever,  and  for  tin- 
first  time  since  1893  it  is  possible  to  anticipate  the  develop- 
ment of  suburban  Washington  as  an  integral  part  of  the 
national  capital  with  the  same  street  plan  sustained  under 
the  same  policy  of  proportionate  contribution  by  the  nation 
and  the  nation's  city. 

RE-ENACTING  SECTION  FIFTEEN. 

Hut  hardly  is  the  District  rid  of  the  pernicious  provisions 
of  section  15  when  legislation  is  proposed  in  various 
bills  which  will  re-enact  piecemeal  in  the  case  of  successive 
single  streets  the  iniquitous  principle  of  exclusive  local  con- 
tribution for  suburban  street  condemnation  and  improve- 
ment which  Congress  has  just  condemned  and  abolished  in 
its  application  to  the  comprehensive  extension  of  Wash- 
ington's streets  collectively.  Congress  is  asked  by  these  bills 
to  reverse  and  to  stultify  itself. 

Every  protest  and  every  argument  ever  made  against  the 
existence  of  section  15,  lately  deceased,  apply  with  equal 
force  to  the  proposed  resurrection  now  of  the  principle  and 
spirit  of  that  obnoxious  enactment.  Congress  and  this  com- 
munity, having  in  effect  disapproved  repudiation  of  the  half 
and  half  principle  in  reference  to  the  extension  of  Washing- 
ton's streets  collectively,  will  not  of  course  abandon  that 
principle  in  the  extension  of  the  same  streets  individually 
and  separately. 

In  every  possible  way  the  people  of  the  District  have  pro- 
tested against  the  proposed  imposition  whether  the  street 
extensions  are  presented  one  at  a  time  or  in  a  bunch.  The 
Board  of  Trade  has  repeatedly  and  formally  declared  that 
proportionate  contribution  by  the  United  States  under  the 
act  of  1878  is  a  vital  feature  of  such  extensions,  lacking 
which  they  should  not  be  made  at  all  on  the  proposed  grand 
and  national  scale.  Its  latest  declaration  on  the  general 
subject  is  contained  in  a  resolution,  unanimously  adopted 
on  the  Gth  of  January,  189S,  as  follows: 

Rewired.  That  in  the  opiniou  of  the  Board  of  Trade  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  District  officials  and  citizens  generally  not  to  propose  or  give 


26 

assent  publicly  or  privately  to  appropriations  being  made  for  any 
municipal  purposes  other  than  those  made  in  accordance  with  the  act 
of  June  11,  1878;  and  that  it  should  be  made  manifest  to  Congress, 
whenever  necessary,  in  an  earnest  and  unmistakable  but  respectful 
manner,  that  appropriations  made  otherwise  are  not  desirable  or 
acceptable. 

THE  WHOLE  DISTRICT  IS  THE  SEAT  OF  GOVERNMENT. 

There  is  no  justification  of  any  attempt  to  dissect  the 
federal  District  and  to  place  the  severed  portions  in  differing 
relations  to  the  nation.  The  Constitution  set  apart  for 
national  uses  and  subjected  to  the  national  power  of  ex- 
clusive legislation  with  the  accompanying  disabilities  every 
foot  of  the  ten  miles  square,  and  not  merely  that  portion  of 
it  which  was  first  platted  to  form  the  original  city  of  Wash- 
ington. Every  District  property  owner  is  equally  subject  to 
the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  Congress,  and  pays  his  taxes 
into  a  common  fund  which  is  expended  without  reference 
to  the  section  of  its  contribution-in  portions  of  the  District 
where,  in  the  opinion  of  Congress,  it  is  most  needed  for  the 
public  good.  Attention  has  been  called  to  the  fact  that  the 
seat  of  government  of  the  United  States  is  not  simply  Wash- 
ington, but  the  District  of  Columbia,  as  appears  both  from 
the  Constitution  and  from  the  act  of  July  16,  1790  (U.  S. 
Stat.  at  L.,  vol.  1,  p.  130,  section  6):  "And  be  it  further 
enacted  that,  on  the  first  Monday  in  December,  in  the  year 
1S(»0.  the  seat  of  government  of  the  United  States  shall  by 
virtue  of  this  act  be  transferred  to  the  District  and  place 
aforesaid."  In  line  with  the  legal  condition  from  the  be- 
ginning has  been  the  movement  to  make  as  a  fact  the 
national  capital  and  the  District  synonymous  and  identical, 
for  instance,  by  consolidating  Georgetown  and  Washington, 
by  extending  the  same  laws  over  Washington  and  George- 
town and  the  county,  and  by  treating  the  city  as  including 
i  lie  entire  District  in  local  censuses. 

Obviously  it  is  ridiculous  and  unjust  to  discriminate  be- 
tween the  people  in  the  different  sections  of  the  federal 
District  and  to  s;iy  to  one  contributor  to  a  common  fund: 
"You  may  not  enjoy  the  benefit  of  expenditures  from  that 
fund  on  the  same  basis  of  treatment  as  your  fellow  con- 


27 

tributors  because  you  live  on  one  side  of  an  imaginary  line 
within  the  federal  District  while  they  live  on  the  other." 

STKI:I:T  KXTKXSION  ON  NATIONAL.  NOT  LOCAL  LIXKS. 

Tlie  pending  bills  to  extend  and  improve  separate  streets 
entirely  at  the  local  expense  propose  substantially  the  re- 
production in  the  comity  of  the  street  plan  of  the  original 
city.  The  avenues  seeking  extension  propose  to  suffer  no 
material  conn-action,  and  if  all  are  carried  through  the  belt 
of  suburban  subdivisions  and  connected  with  the  street 
plan  provided  by  the  amended  highway  act  the  scheme  of 
streets  of  the  new  Washington  while  occupying  a  somewhat 
smaller  percentage  of  area  in  thoroughfares,  will  be  on  the 
same  broad  scale  as  that  of  the  original  city. 

But  the  plan  of  Washington  as  conceived  by  our  fore- 
fathers was  on  a  national,  not  a  local  scale,  the  broad 
streets  and  avenues  occupying  more  than  one-half  the  entire 
area.  The  scheme  would  have  been  absurd  for  a  self- 
supporting,  self-developing  Maryland  village  of  that  day. 
Its  extension  at  this  time  to  adjacent  territory  is  equally 
absurd,  as  well  as  grossly  unjust  and  unbearably  oppressive, 
unless  the  nation  stands  in  the  same  relation  to  the  extended 
as  to  the  original  plan  and  in  the  same  relation  to  the  en- 
larged as  to  the  original  city.  The  nation  should  not  incon- 
sistently say  to  suburban  Washington:  "You  are  to  be  a 
part  of  the  capital  in  plan,  but  not  in  any  other  respect. 
You  are  to  be  compelled  to  dedicate,  open,  and  improve 
streets  and  avenues  on  a  national  scale,  but  exclusively  at 
local  expense.  While  making  you  an  integral  part  of  the 
capital  in  street  system,  you  are  repudiated  as  a  part  of  that 
capital  under  the  organic  act  of  1878." 

NATIONAL  KESroNSIBILITY  IX  CAPITAL  EXTEXSIOX. 

The  expense  of  the  street  system  of  Washington  is  not  to 
be  endured  unless  met  by  all  the  resources  which  combine 
to  make  the  national  capital  worthy  of  the  nation.     If  Con 
gress  will  violate  the  obligations  incurred  at  the  founding 


28 

of  the  federal  District,  upon  which  the  act  of  1878  was  based, 
and  will  say  in  legislation  concerning  the  extension  of  single 
streets  separately  and  successively,  that  the  nation  lias  no 
tinancial  concern  in  the  modern  capital  save  in  the  portion 
limited  by  the  imaginary  line  of  Boundary  street,  then  the 
streets  of  the  repudiated  section  must  be  opened  and  im- 
proved on  the  basis  of  cramped  local  resources,  and  not  on 
the  national  lines  of  the  original  city.  But  if,  on  the  other 
hand.  Congress  wisely  determines  that  the  grand  purpose 
of  the  highway  act  shall  be  carried  out  and  that  the  greater 
Washington  of  the  coming  century,  for  which  we  moderns 
will  be  held  responsible,  shall  not  discredit  the  nation  when 
compared  with  the  city  planned  by  the  forefathers,  then  the 
violation  of  the  organic  act  involved  in  the  extension  propo- 
sitions now  under  consideration  must  be  vigorously  dis- 
countenanced. 

Consider  for  one  moment  Washington's  original  street 
plan  of  which  the  use  is  suggested  exclusively  at  private 
expense  for  the  extension  of  the  nation's  city. 

It  represents  the  hard  bargain  driven  with  the  original 
proprietors  of  the  soil.  John  Law,  a  prominent  citizen,  who 
came  here  in  1800,  charged  in  1820,  voicing  a  general  com- 
plaint, that  the  city  had  been  made  vast  by  the  politicians 
merely  to  gratify  their  cupidity  and  to  tempt  as  many  farm 
holders  as  possible  to  give  up  half  their  property.  Even 
more  bitter  complaints  were  made  concerning  the  area  ap- 
propriated for  streets  and  avenues,  not  merely  one-half,  but 
all  of  which  was  taken  by  the  government  without  com- 
pensation. The  property  owners  donated  one-naif  .of  the 
lots  and  all  of  the  streets  and  avenues  to  the  nation;  and 
the  national  representatives  showed  shrewd  appreciation 
of  the  terms  of  the  benefaction  by  setting  apart  as  streets 
more  than  one-half  of  the  total  area  of  the  city,  3,606  acres 
out  of  a  total  of  6,111,  a  greater  percentage  of  street  surface 
than  in  any  other  city  in  the  world.  Its  vastness  has  been 
well  pictured  by  imagining  a  street  100  feet  wide,  extending 
from  Washington  to  New  York,  to  be  graded,  asphalted, 
and  supplied  with  gutters,  curbstones,  sidewalks,  drains, 
si  \\ris.  lampposts,  and  shade  trees.  As  the  Senate  District 
committee  said  in  its  report  of  1835: 


29 

The  plan  of  the  city  was  formed  by  the  public  authorities;  the 
dimensions  of  the  streets  determined  by  them  without  interference 
by  the  inhabitants  or  regard  to  their  particular  interest  or  con- 
venience. It  is  a  plan  calculated  for  the  magnificent  capital  of  a 
great  nation,  but  oppressive  from  its  very  dimensions  and  arrange- 
ments to  the  inhabitants,  if  its  execution  to  any  considerable  extent 
is  to  be  thrown  upon  them.  No  people  who  anticipated  the  execu- 
tion and  subsequent  support  of  it  out  of  their  own  funds  would  ever 
have  dreamed  of  forming  such  a  plan.  At  that  period  neither  the 
government  nor  the  proprietors  contemplated  that  the  whole  or  even 
a  large  proportion  of  the  burden  should  be  thrown  upon  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  city.  *  *  * 

The  streets  were  not  only  oppressive  from  their  size  and  extent  m 
their  original  formation,  but  they  will  from  the  same  cause  continue 
to  be  an  unending  source  of  expense  in  their  repair.  They  must  an- 
nually cost  neai'ly  double  the  amount  of  streets  of  the  same  length 
of  moderate  dimensions.  The  government  which  created  this  condi- 
tion of  things  ought  not  to  be  very  deaf  to  the  complaints  of  those 
upon  whom  such  burden  has  fallen. 

EXTENSION   OF  THE  STREET  PLAN. 

The  proposition  now  is  to  preserve  much  of  this  magnifi- 
cent street  plan,  the  grandest  in  the  world,  and  to  extend  it 
to  a  considerable  degree  over  the  District  outside  of  Wash- 
ington under  a  method  of  extension  in  some  respects  more 
unjustly  oppressive  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  federal 
District  than  the  arrangement  of  which  the  original  property 
owners  complained.  The  latter  were  required  to  give  land 
for  the  streets;  but  they  were  recompensed  in  part  for  their 
gifts  by  the  understanding,  afterward  violated,  that  the 
donated  streets  should  be  opened  and  improved  exclusively 
or  largely  at  the  expense  of  the  nation.  In  the  present  ex- 
tension of  this  plan  to  the  county,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
nation  is  exempted  in  at  least  one  "of  the  pending  bills  from 
participating  even  in  the  improvement  of  the  extended 
street. 

Had  old  Washington  realized  that  the  nation  would  dis- 
regard its  implied  agreement  and  throw  the  expense  of  street 
development  almost  entirely  upon  individual  citizens,  it 
would  never  have  consented  to  dedicate  for  street  purposes 
more  than  half  of  the  total  area  of  the  city,  and  the  new 
Washington  beyond  Boundary  street  may  well  shrink  back 


30 

when  invited  to  develop  the  extravagant  and  expensive  but 
magnificent  street  plan  of  a  great  national  capital  with  the 
feeble,  unaided  resources  of  a  scattered  suburban  popu- 
lation, which  in  its  natural  development  would  never  dream 
of  dedicating  to  the  public  and  of  maintaining  and  improv- 
ing at  its  own- expense  a  street  area  that  would  take  out  of 
the  market  and  render  not  only  unproductive,  but  a  source 
of  direct  and  heavy  outlay,  over  one-third  of  the  entire  sub- 
urban city. 

The  large  owners  of  unsubdivided  land  in  the  District  out- 
side of  Florida  avenue  will  doubtless  readily  donate  to  the 
public  the  necessary  streets,  just  as  their  predecessors  did 
at  the  founding  of  the  city.  They  will  not  even  exact  the 
understanding  had  with  the  original  proprietors  that  the 
cost  of  improving  these  streets  shall  fall  exclusively  or 
largely  on  the  nation.  They  will  be  content  if,  being  annexed 
to  Washington,  the  donated  thoroughfares  are  treated  in 
the  same  way  as  all  other  Washington  streets  and  are  de- 
veloped under  the  act  of  1878  on  the  half-and-half  basis. 
But  the  owners  of  lots  in  the  belt  of  misfit  subdivisions 
intervening  between  the  original  city  and  the  unsubdivided 
land  and  the  owners  of  small  plots  in  such  unsubdivided 
land,  whose  property  under  the  pending  extension  bills  will 
be  either  all  taken  in  streets  or  so  mutilated  as  to  be  ren- 
dered practically  valueless,  occupy  a  different  position.  Why 
should  they  give  to  the  public,  they  ask,  that  for  which  they 
have  paid  cash  with  no  resulting  benefits,  even  indirect,  to 
themselves  from  the  transaction?  Clearly  they  must  be 
compensated  for  their  land  taken  for  public  uses,  and  just 
as  clearly,  if  the  land  is  to  be  thrown  into  Washington's 
grand  plan  of  streets  and  made  a  part  of  the  capital  the 
financial  treatment  applied  by  law  to  the  old  must  also  be 
applied  to  the  new  streets  of  the  nation's  city. 

UNJUST  TO  TAXPAYERS. 

The  system  of  street  opening  and  improvement  proposed 
by  the  separate  extension  billSj  like  those  affecting  Rhode 
Island  avenue,  Eleventh  street  and  Sixteenth  street, 
is  unjust  to  all  individual  local  taxpayers,  whether  living  in- 
side or  beyond  Boundary  street.  Under  the  organic  act  and 


31 

tlir  present  system  and  practice  such  improvements,  whether 
in  tlie  suburbs  or  in  original  Washington,  are  paid  for  from 
the  taxes  of  all  Washington  without  regard  to  the  location 
of  the  taxpayer,  and  the  nation,  a  large  property  owner  on 
both  sides  of  Ilotindary  street,  contributes  its  proportion 
toward  all.  It  is  now  proposed  to  establish  a  new  precedent 
of  exempting  I'ncle  Sam  from  contributing  outside  I'xmnd- 
ary  street.  The  injustice  to  the  suburbanite  is  obvious. 
But  the  owner  of  property  inside  the  city  has  also  a  griey- 
ance.  Why  should  he  pay  for  the  improvement  of  streets 
in  the  suburbs  when  Uncle  Sam,  who  owns  over  :5.000  acres 
of  these  suburbs,  has  exempted  himself  from  such  payment? 
If  he  is  equitably  bound  to  pay  for  suburban  improvements, 
inasmuch  as  the  suburban  taxpayer  has  long  contributed 
toward  urban  improvements,  does  not  the  same  equity  apply 
to  Uncle  Sam,  who  owns  one-half  of  the  taxable  values  of 
Washington?  Is  it  not  ridiculous  that  the  only  urban  tax- 
payer to  be  exempted  from  suburban  contribution  is  Uncle 
Sam,  who.  with  his  thousands  of  acres  beyond  Boundary 
street,  is  by  far  the  largest  single  suburban  property  owner? 

The  taxpayers  of  the  District  are  absolutely  unable  un- 
aided to  develop  the  outlying  territory  on  the  lines  of  the 
original  capital.  Suburban  Washington  contains  31,1)25 
acres,  as  against  6,111  acres  in  the  original  city  and  <>..">(  10 
acres  in  Washington  and  Georgetown.  At  a  minimum  esti- 
mate there  will  be  much  over  10,000  acres  of  streets  to  be 
condemned,  opened,  maintained  and  improved,  as  against 
3,606  acres  in  the  original  city,  under  whose  burden  the  tax- 
payers of  the  capital  for  three-fourths  of  a  century  groaned. 
The  new  city  will  be  five  times  the  area  of  the  original  city. 
The  area  of  the  streets  to  be  donated,  maintained,  and  im- 
proved will  be  twice  as  large  as  the  entire  area  of  the 
original  city,  and  the  imaginary  street  representing  this  area 
would  extend  to  Chicago  instead  of  New  York. 

The  proposition  carried  to  its  logical  termination  means 
bankruptcy  for  the  local  taxpayers.  The  municipal  ex- 
penses, even  with  extremely  moderate  suburban  improve- 
ments on  a  cramped  street  plan  and  with  the  nation  con- 
tributing its  share  of  the  entire  cost,  have  sufficed  to  keep  tin- 
taxes  up  to  a  high  point  compared  with  other  municipalities. 


32 

If  the  suburbs  were  to  be  developed  on  the  original  city's 
magnificent  lines  and  entirely  at  the  local  taxpayers'  ex- 
pense, the  result  of  higher  and  higher  taxes  and  finally  finan- 
cial disaster  would  clearly  be  inevitable.  This  monstrous 
proposition  is  intelligible  only  on  the  mistaken  idea  that 
Washington  taxpayers  are  in  some  way  unduly  favored,  and 
that  they  can  without  injustice  be  punished  with  what  would 
otherwise  be  grossly  unreasonable  and  burdensome  exac- 
tions. Congress,  with  full  power  on  the  subject  in  its  hands, 
already  requires  from  the  local  taxpayers  an  equitable  con- 
tribution to  the  capital's  expenses,  and  no  steps  should  be 
irrevocably  taken  which  will  increase  largely  such  taxation. 

Either  suburban  Washington  should  be  made  a  part  of  the 
capital  in  all  respects  or  the  section  should  be  retroceded 
to  Maryland  and  permitted  to  develop  on  the  natural  lines 
of  its  own  resources  as  a  series  of  Maryland  villages.  The 
Greater  Washington  must  be  built  up  on  the  general  plan 
of  the  original  city,  making  a  Capital  with  a  big  C  worthy 
of  the  Nation  with  a  big  N,  or  the  federal  District  must  be 
reduced  to  the  limits  of  the  picayune  capital  worthy  of  a 
nation  spelled  with  a  lower  case  n. 

This  capital,  whether  it  is  to  be  Greater  or  less  Washing- 
ton, will  embody  the  national  idea  and  will  serve  as  an  index 
of  the  strength  of  national  patriotic  sentiment  and  of  na- 
tional prosperity  and  power. 

No  act  of  the  forefathers  furnishes  more  convincing  evi- 
dence of  wrise  forethought  than  the  creation  and  general  de- 
sign of  the  national  capital.  What  they  planned  the  men  of 
to-day  are  to  carry  out  with  the  enlargements  and  improve- 
ments befitting  the  greater  republic  of  the  present  time,  and 
necessary  to  make  the  modern  city  in  every  branch  of  muni- 
cipal development  a  model  capital. 

What  is  done  for  the  capital  is  done  for  the  nation  and  for 
the  promotion  of  national  sentiment.  At  once  the  bond  and 
token  of  union  the  nation's  city  and  the  spirit  of  American 
nationality  are  intertwined.  Sincere  and  enthusiastic  love 
for  country  is  what  keeps  alive  the  modern  republic  and 
gives  it  prosperity  and  glory.  Both  capital  and  nation  have 
planted  the  roots  of  their  existence  in  this  patriotic  senti- 
ment. The  union  and  its  peculiar  residence  and  part  prop- 


33 

erty,  hallowed  by  every  association  which  can  keep  patriots 
ism  alive,  rest  upon  the  same  supports. 

The  national  sentiment  was  never  stronger  than  it  is  to- 
day. The  whole  republic  thrills  in  response  to  the  patriotic 
impulse.  The  nation  and  whatever  pertains  to  it  are  spelled 
in  the  largest  type.  I  do  not  believe  for  an  instant  that 
American  sentiment  will  declare  for  a  contracted  capital, 
discreditable  when  compared  with  the  broad  plans  of  the 
forefathers  and  involving  ultimate  repudiation  of  national 
concern  in  national  territory.  I  am  convinced,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  the  seventy  million  Americans  of  to-day,  instead 
of  approving  a  retrograde  anti-expansion  policy  of  con- 
temptible £fhallness  in  a  matter  of  national  concern  would, 
if  polled,  decide  that  there  can  be  no  more  patriotic  and 
ennobling  labor  than  that  which  associates  one's  name  with 
the  illustrious  forefathers  in  developing  worthily  and  on  an 
equitable  basis  the  city  of  the  union,  thereby  fostering  the 
national  sentiment,  realizing  the  national  aspiration  and 
gratifying  the  national  pride. 

SUMMARY. 

1.  The  primary  responsibility  for  the  support  and  develop- 
ment of  the  national  capital  is  upon  the  nation;  and  Con- 
gress, not  the  people  of  the  federal  District,  fixes  the  amount 
of  the  latter's  tax  contribution  toward  the  cost  of  the  capi- 
tal's maintenance. 

2.  The  burden  imposed  by  Congress  upon  the  local  tax- 
payer is  fully  as  heavy  as  that  which  the  average  self -govern- 
ing American  municipality  imposes  upon  itself,  and  in  view 
of  the  peculiar  disabilities  under  which   the   District  of 
Columbia  labors  its  tax  is  harder  to  meet  than  that  of  the 
average  American  community. 

3.  While  the  nation  up  to  1878  exacted  an  excessive  and 
oppressive  contribution  from  the  local  taxpayers  toward  the 
upbuilding  of  the  capital,  and  since  that  date  has  required 
all  that  could  be  equitably  demanded,  it  has  failed  to  carry 
out  fully  its  own  obligations  toward  the  capital,  having 
shamefully  neglected  these  obligations  for  three-fourths  of  a 


34 

century  and  not  ottering  now  to  reimburse  payments  made 
on  its  account  during  this  season  of  neglect. 

4.  The  unjust  and  iniquitous  repeal  of  the  act  of  1878 
would  he  ruinous  to  the  local  taxpayers;  and  its  serious 
violation  as  hy  its  repeal,  direct  or  indirect,  in  its  application 
to  the  portion  of  the  District  outside  of  original  Washing- 
ton, would  be  proportionately  disastrous. 

.">.  The  nation's  obligation  of  proportionate  contribution 
toward  the  maintenance  and  development  of  the  federal 
District  is  equitable  in  its  nature,  based  primarily  on  the 
circumstances  of  the  capital's  original  creation,  and  second- 
arily on  present  and  continuous  conditions  enforcing  both 
the  original  and  a  renewed  obligation  upon  the  nation  as 
the  untaxed  owner  of  one-half  of  Washington's  real  estate 
and  of  over  3,000  acres  of  the  unplotted  portion  of  the  federal 
District.  The  obligation  is  as  just  and  as  binding  to-day 
as  it  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  century.  National  recog- 
nition of  this  obligation  is  crystallized  in  the  organic 
act  of  1878.  That  act  should  be  faithfully  and  thoroughly 
obeyed  and  sustained,  both  in  letter  and  in  spirit.  It  should 
not  be  attacked  directly  or  indirectly,  openly  or  insidiously, 
by  threats  of  wholesale  repeal  or  by  undermining  the  law 
and  destroying  it  piecemeal  as  by  confining  its  application 
to  a  limited  portion  of  the  federal  District,  or  by  nullifying 
the  spirit  of  the  legislation  through  numerous  exceptions  in 
enacting  laws  and  making  specific  appropriations  hostile  to 
its  intent.  Instead  of  quibbling  over  and  attempting  to 
evade  this  act  as  by  proposing  to  open  and  improve  suburban 
streets  in  the  federal  District  solely  at  local  expense,  the 
equitable  principle  embodied  in  the  organic  act  should  be 
applied  to  the  period  before  1878,  and  if  the  financial  re- 
lations of  nation  and  capital  are  to  be  unsettled  and  re- 
opened, instead  of  curtailing  the  national  contribution,  just 
reimbursement  should  be  made  to  the  District  for  local  ex- 
penditures beyond  its  proper  proportion  during  the  three- 
quarters  of  a  century  of  national  neglect. 

({.  Maintenance  intact  of  the  organic  act  is  not  only  a 
point  of  honor  with  the  nation,  but  is  strongly  urged  by  the 
dirhites  of  national  pride.  During  the  period  when  the 


35 

national  obligation,  tardily  recognized  by  the  organic  act  in 
1STS.  was  neglected,  the  capital  was  a  national  shame,  a 
byword  and  reproach.  Since  the  nation  has  returned  even 
half-way  to  its  original  obligation  the  capital  has  become  an 
objett  of  national  affection,  in  whose  attractiveness  and  in 
whose  welfare  the  whole  American  people  take  pride.  In 
place  of  the  discreditable,  straggling,  neglected  village  of  the 
period  of  national  indifference  there  has  arisen  the  capital  of 
to-day  wherein  the  eye  is  pleased  by  all  that  both  nature  and 
art  have  done  to  adorn  the  most  beautiful  city  on  the  con- 
tinent. In  its  honest,  economical  and  effective  municipal 
government,  in  its  asphalt  pavements,  in  its  system  of  shade 
trees,  in  its  underground  electric  system  of  rapid  transit,  in 
its  broad  streets  and  avenues,  already  comparatively  free 
and  soon  it  is  hoped  to  be  relieved  entirely  of  overhead  wires. 
and  in  its  numerous  and  diversified  parks,  it  has  become  a 
model  among  the  municipalities  of  the  world. 

The  ward  of  the  nation  will  never  again  be  starved  and  ill- 
treated  by  its  guardian,  once  contemptuous,  now  grown 
proud  and  affectionate. 

In  the  present  partnership  of  nation  and  nation's  city  the 
former  has  indorsed  the  latter's  promise  to  prosper  as  well 
as  to  pay.  The  swelling  prospects  of  other  places  that  at- 
tract men  may  collapse,  mineral  deposits  may  fail,  tariff 
changes  may  ruin  the  business  of  a  manufacturing  town, 
tickle  commerce  may  How  in  other  channels;  but  the  fortunes 
of  the  republic  and  its  capital  are  inseparably  interwoven, 
and  while  the  states  of  the  Union  endure  and  flourish,  Wash- 
ington as  the  nation's  city  will  show  forth  the  republic  in 
initial  me.  responding  in  its  own  growth  to  the  national  de- 
velopment and  prosperity. 


REPORT  OF  THE    PRESIDENT. 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  November  14,  1898. 
Gentlemen  of  the  Washington  Board  of  Trade: 

The  past  year's  record  of  the  Board  of  Trade  has  been 
marked  by  activity  and  achievement,  and  the  review  of  what 
has  been  accomplished  cannot  fail  to  gratify  every  member 
of  the  Board  and  to  inspire  him  to  renewed  and  redoubled 
efforts  for  the  local  welfare. 

INTERNAL  AFFAIRS. 

The  healthy  growth  of  the  Board  itself  through  the  ac- 
cession of  new  members  has  added  over  one  hundred  names 
to  our  list,  a  net  increase  of  over  sixty,  to  be  credited  largely 
to  the  energy  of  Secretary  Harries  and  the  Membership  Com- 
mittee. Greater  interest  in  committee  work  has  resulted 
from  systematic  enlargement  and  strengthening  of  the  com- 
mittees in  pursuance  of  the  policy  of  assigning  additional 
members  where  they  most  desired  to  be  and  where  they 
would  consequently  labor  most  effectively.  The  committee 
membership  has  been  increased  over  two  hundred  since  the 
last  annual  meeting  and  now  numbers  365  (with  a  few  dupli- 
cations) as  against  158  (also  with  duplications)  in  the 
preceding  year.  A  new  Committee  on  Mercantile  In- 
terests has  been  created;  at  first  a  special  committee 
by  the  action  of  the  Executive  Committee  and  later  a  stand- 
ing committee  by  the  action  of  the  Board  of  Trade.  My  de- 
sire has  been  and  is  that  every  member  who  can  give  active 
attention  to  this  work  shall  be  represented  in  the  commit- 
tee lists  and  on  thai  committee  in  whose  public  labors  he  is 
most  interested.  The  number  of,  and  attendance  upon,  the 
meetings  of  committees,  directors  and  the  Board  itself  have 
been  unusually  and  gratifyingly  large,  and  the  influence 
of  the  Board  locally  and  with  the  representatives  of  the 


6 

nation  has  increased.  In  the  number  and  importance  of 
legislative  propositions  discussed  and  definitely  acted  upon 
in  public  meetings  of  the  Board  and  in  the  legislation,  small 
and  great,  promoting  the  local  welfare,  and  secured  largely 
through  the  Board's  efforts,  all  the  records  have  in  the  year 
now  closing  been  broken. 

The  most  important  local  legislation  secured  during  the 
year  is  summarized  in  the  following  resolution  of  thanks, 
passed  by  the  Board  of  Directors  at  a  meeting  July  tf,  1898: 

Whereas  the  Board  of  Trade,  through  its  appropriate  committees, 
acting  in  accordance  with  the  directions  of  the  said  Board,  has  urged 
upon  Congress  at  its  present  session  the  passage  of  legislation  amend- 
atory of  the  highway  act,  for  the  increase  and  purification  of  the 
District's  water  supply,  for  carrying  into  effect  the  comprehensive 
system  of  sewage  disposal,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  free  public 
library,  for  the  reclamation  of  the  Anacostia  flats  and  for  the  devel- 
opment of  manual  training  as  part  of  the  District's  educational  sys- 
tem and  the  erection  of  adequate  manual  training  schools;  and, 

Whereas  Congress  has  responded  wholly  or  in  part  to  the  argu- 
ments and  appeals  of  its  District  constituents  on  all  these  subjects 
and  has  radically  and  beneficially  amended  the  highway  act,  and  has 
provided  for  the  completion  of  the  aqueduct  tunnel  and  for  prelimi- 
nary investigations  pointing  toward  filtration  of  the  Potomac  water, 
and  has  taken  significant  steps,  involving  considerable  expenditure, 
in  the  direction  of  the  comprehensive  system  of  sewage  disposal,  and 
has  provided  for  the  maintenance  of  the  free  public  library,  and  has 
authorized  the  surveys  preliminary  to  the  reclamation  of  the  Ana- 
costia flats,  and  has  authorized  the  erection  in  Washington  of  a  large 
and  creditable  manual  training  school;  therefore, 

Be  it  resolved,  ^That  the  directors  of  the  Board  of  Trade  extend  the 
hearty  thanks  of  the  Board  and  of  the  community  to  their  legislators 
who  have  so  faithfully  and  wisely  performed  the  duties  assigned  to 
them  by  the  constitution,  and  especially  to  the  District  committees  of 
the  two  houses,  and  to  the  subcommittees  of  the  appropriations  com- 
mittees in  charge  of  the  District  appropriation  bill,  whose  patient  and 
intelligent  labors  for  the  promotion  of  the  Capital's  welfare  are 
warmly  and  gratefully  appreciated. 

VALUE   OF   HARMONIOUS   CO-OPERATION. 

This  record  teaches  the  lesson  of  the  value  of  harmoni- 
ous effort,  of  sinking  petty  personal  and  sectional  differences 
and  standing  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  defense  and  promotion 


of  the  general  welfare.  Too  often  wrangling  among  citi- 
zens themselves,  or  in  the  Board  itself,  has  brought  to  a 
standstill  important  public  projects. 

The  Board  of  Trade,  representing  in  its  membership  every 
section  of  the  District  and  every  local  interest,  and  dealing 
on  broad,  liberal  lines  with  those  subjects  which  are  of 
general  concern,  is  a  needed  unifying  force  in  the  life  and 
progress  of  the  municipality.  Citizens  who  wisely  organize 
in  the  various  sections  of  the  District  for  the  advancement 
of  sectional  interests  and  the  securing  of  sectional  improve- 
ments come  together  in  the  Board  of  Trade,  not  to  promote 
especially  the  welfare  of  their  particular  section,  or  their 
own  individual  fortunes,  but  to  co-operate  with  other  citi- 
zens in  the  advancement  of  those  measures  which  are  for 
tln>  common  good  of  all.  The  Board,  fulfilling  this  func- 
tion, and  consistently  acting  on  this  line  of  policy,  in  close 
louch  with  the  Commissioners,  and  acting,  so  far  as  the 
public  interests  permit,  in  harmony  with  them,  conceding 
10  the  citizens'  associations  in  the  various  sections  the 
handling  of  matters  peculiarly  sectional  and  local,  and 
banding  together  the  public-spirited  from  all  the  associa- 
tions and  from  the  citizens  generally  for  the  promotion 
of  the  general  welfare,  will  continue  to  be  a  power  for  good 
in  the  community.  In  municipal,  as  in  national  develop- 
ment, we  are  to  know  no  north,  no  south,  no  east,  no  west. 
All  Washington  is  to  work  for  wise  highway  extension, 
though  the  subject  is  of  greatest  immediate  concern  to  the 
suburban  city;  for  the  removal  of  grade  crossings,  though 
East  and  South  Washington  are  the  special  sufferers  from 
this  evil;  for  an  increase  in  the  water  supply,  though  this 
lack  is  most  painfully  felt  in  the  high  sections  of  the  com- 
munity; for  comprehensive  sewage  disposal,  though  the 
low-lying,  business  section  will  benefit  most  thereby;  for 
the  reclamation  of  marshy  flats,  whether  in  the  Anacostia 
on  the  east  or  the  Potomac  on  the  south  and  the  west;  for 
abating  the  nuisance  of  open  sewers,  whether  they  deface 
the  northwest  in  the  shape  of  Rock  Creek,  or  the  southeast 
in  James  Creek  canal.  The  legislative  achievements  of 
1898  give  a  foretaste  of  what  may  be  accomplished  when 
the  forces  which  work  for  Washington  pull  as  one  man  in 
die  same  direction,  nnd  furnish  inspiration  for  persistence  in 


8 

the  policy  of  harmonious  and  energetic  co-operation.  When 
we,  as  citizens,  are  united,  our  National  Legislature  has  no 
excuse  for  indifference  and  neglect,  and  the  natural  Ameri- 
can tendency  of  the  present  day  to  be  proud  of  the  National 
Capital,  to  be  interested  in  its  concerns  and  to  foster  and 
develop  it  will  suffer  no  check  for  which  Washiugtonians 
may  reasonably  be  held  responsible. 

Many  details  of  what  has  been  accomplished  and  the  out- 
lines of  the  proposed  future  work  of  the  Board  are  suggested 
in  the  reports  of  the  various  standing  committees. 

COMMITTEES   WHICH    MAKE    WASHINGTON    ATTRACTIVE. 

Much  of  Washington's  strength,  like  that  of  woman,  is  in 
its  beauty ;  its  face  is  its  fortune.  Among  the  Board's  most 
important  committees,  therefore,  are  those  which  labor  to 
increase  the  city's  material  prosperity  by  developing  its 
external  attractiveness.  The  special  committee  on  the  high- 
way act  and  the  standing  committee  on  streets  and  ave- 
nues have  played  a  prominent  part  in  this  year's  activity. 

The  Committee  on  Streets  and  Avenues  in  its  report  pre 
sents  an  interesting  recital  of  the  events  leading  up  to  the 
enactment  of  the  important  legislation  amendatory  of  the 
highway  act  of  1893.  The  Board,  through  an  able  special 
committee,  prepared,  and  at  a  public  meeting  indorsed,  a  bill 
which  largely  reduced  the  street  area  of  the  suburban  ex- 
tension plan,  cut  down  by  one-half  the  estimated  cost  of 
opening  streets  through  existing  subdivisions,  eliminated 
from  the  act  of  1893  section  15,  which  threw  the  entire  cost 
of  suburban  street  opening  and  future  improvement  upon 
local  taxpayers  and  property-owners,  and  provided  a  bond 
issue,  the  United  States  and  the  District  contributing,  to 
meet  the  expenses  of  the  amended  plan.  The  Board  at  the 
same  time  declared  that  proportionate  contribution  by  the 
United  States  under  the  act  of  1878  was  a  vital  feature  of 
the  amendatory  legislation,  and  that  if  the  elimination  of 
section  15  could  not  be  otherwise  secured  the  whole  highway 
act  should  be  repealed.  The  House  of  Kepresentatives 
being  unwilling  at  that  time  to  appropriate,  on  any  basis,  so 
large  a  sum  of  money  for  straightening  crooked  streets,  ac- 
cepted the  second  alternative  and  voted  to  repeal  the  entire 
net.  The  Senate  made  a  compromise  proposition  to  drop 


9 

tin-  bond  issue  proposal,  to  yield  for  the  time  bring  ;it  least 
the  plan  of  cutting  through  the  belt  of  subdivisions  in  the 
first  section  of  the  street  plans,  to  repeal  section  ITi,  and 
other  objectionable  features  of  the  act,  and  to  retain  the 
street  extension  maps,  after  certain  modifications  of  the 
first  section,  coupled  with  remedial  provisions  for  the  benefit 
of  suburban  property-owners  injuriously  and  unjustly  af- 
fected by  the  original  act  of  1893.  This  proposal  was  finally 
accepted  by  the  House,  and  it  became  a  law.  As  the  Coin 
mil  tee  on  Streets  and  Avenues  remarks,  this  act  was  "prob- 
ably the  most  important  matter  of  legislation  passed  dur- 
ing the  present  year  affecting  the  interests  of  the  people  of 
the  District  of  Columbia."  Though  there  was  a  Congres- 
sional refusal  to  make  present  provision  on  an  equitable  or 
on  any  basis  to  carry  out  a  suburban  street  extension  plan, 
yet  the  difficult  feat  was  accomplished  of  eliminating  from 
the  highway  act  its  most  offensive  and  injurious  features 
without  destroying  utterly  the  street  plans  and  maps  upon 
which  so  much  thought  and  intelligent  labor  have  been  be- 
stowed. 

Its  parks  and  reservations  constitute  the  city's  conspicu- 
ous and  characteristic  charm.  The  Board  of  Trade,  through 
its  appropriate  committee,  will  steadily  pursue  its  settled 
policy  of  protecting  these  public  breathing  spaces  against 
all  injurious  trespassers,  whether  railroads,  individuals  or 
the  brick  and  mortar  of  public  buildings;  of  enlarging  the 
reservation  area  by  adding,  for  instance,  Anacostia  Park  to 
Potomac  and  Rock  Creek  Parks;  of  improving  and  preserv- 
ing the  people's  real  estate;  of  opening  up  Rock  Creek  Park 
to  the  public  and  of  adorning  the  small  multiform  beauty- 
spots  scattered  over  the  city  in  every  picturesque  fashion 
that  artistic  ingenuity  can  devise. 

Our  public  buildings  are  sometimes  municipal  adorn- 
ments; sometimes  not.  The  Board  of  Trade  labors  to  make 
them  architecturally  attractive  as  well  as  commodious  and 
convenient  for  their  occupants. 

The  Committee  on  Public  Buildings  makes  an  urgent  ap- 
peal for  a  vigorous  effort  to  secure  a  municipal  building. 
With  the  natural  rapid  growth  of  the  District  in  all  its  mu- 
nicipal affairs,  requiring  each  year  more  room  in  which  to 
conduct  its  business,  and  making  more  cramped  and  in- 


10 

sufficient  the  rooms  now  occupied,  there  may  be  easily  dis- 
covered abundant  reason  why  there  should  be  no  more  de- 
lay in  the  matter  of  providing  suitable  accommodations  for 
the  transaction  of  the  important  business  of  the  District. 

I  gladly  emphasize  the  committee's  recommendation  of 
an  especially  vigorous  campaign  for  a  municipal  building. 
No  other  project  deserves  to  be  more  earnestly  pushed  at 
the  approaching  session. 

COMMITTEES    WHICH    MAKE    WASHINGTON    HEALTHFUL. 

Another  group  of  committees  deals  with  lines  of  work 
which  promote  municipal  prosperity  by  making  the  city 
more  healthful. 

The  Committee  on  Public  Health,  which  co-operated  dur- 
ing the  3rear  with  the  Water  Supply,  Sewrerage  and  Harbor 
Improvement  committees  in  securing  valuable  legislation, 
makes  an  interesting  and  elaborate  report.  There  were 
during  the  year  322  fewer  deaths  than  in  189G-'97,  and  the 
death  rate  was  19.32  as  compared  with  20.71  last  year.  An 
urgent  demand  for  filtration  of  the  Potomac  water  is 
based  upon  the  fact  that  typhoid  fever  is  more  and  more 
prevalent  in  towns  over  the  whole  vast  drainage  area  of  the 
Potomac;  that  there  is  increased  contamination  of  water 
with  the  specific  cause  of  this  disease,  and  that  filtration  by 
the  natural  method,  or  filter  beds,  is  the  only  way  by  which 
the  bacterial  causes  of  disease  can  be  effectually  removed. 

The  city  needs  a  chemist  and  laboratory  for  the  detection 
of  food  and  milk  adulteration;  also  school  physicians  to 
make  daily  inspections  of  the  children,  especially  those  who 
are  discovered  by  the  teachers  to  show  signs  of  illness. 

Statistics  of  cause  of  absence  collected  by  John  T.  Free- 
man, superintendent  of  public  schools  in  southeastern  dis- 
trict and  Anacostia,  show  that  from  21  per  cent,  to  25  per 
cent,  of  all  absences  are  due  to  malarial  diseases  in  the 
children  of  the  schools.  Malaria  has  become  a  serious 
cause  of  interference  with  the  education  of  the  children. 
Such  a  condition  offers  the  strongest  reason  for  the  imme- 
diate improvement  of  the  Anacostia  Kiver,  the  source  of 
malarial  disease. 

The  committee  approves  the  plan  of  garbage  disposal  by 
which  the  expense  of  collection  is  paid  for  by  the  grease 


11 

obtained,  and  also  the  plan  of  the  collection  of  ashes  by  the 
municipality. 

The  Committee  on  Sewerage  reports  effective  opposition 
at  the  last  session  of  Congress  to  the  bond  issue  proposed 
by  the  Board  for  the  completion  of  the  comprehensive  pro- 
ject of  sewage  disposal,  but  notes  a  gratifying  increase  in 
the  current  appropriations  for  sewerage  purposes,  which 
have  not  only  allowed  the  construction  of  necessary  city 
and  suburban  sewers,  but  have  made  possible  a  considerable 
progress  on  the  Tiber  Creek  and  New  Jersey  avenue  inter- 
cepting sewer,  and  the  making  of  contracts  for  its  comple- 
tion to  the  junction  of  New  Jersey  avenue  and  D  street 
northwest.  They  have  also  enabled  the  Commissione»s  to 
begin  plans  and  make  estimates  for  a  sewage  pumping 
station,  which  will  materially  hasten  the  progress  of  the 
work  in  that  particular  and  facilitate  the  selection  and  con- 
demnation or  purchase  of  land  for  the  pumping  plant.  The 
committee  urgently  recommends  an  immediate  and  concen- 
trated attack  upon  the  dangerous  open  sewer  of  James  Creek 
canal,  and  upon  the  task  of  convincing  Congress  of  the  im- 
perative necessity,  from  economic  and  sanitary  considera- 
tions, of  pushing  the  comprehensive  sewage  disposal  project 
to  a  speedy  termination. 

The  Committee  on  Water  Supply  traces  the  successive 
steps  of  the  Board's  fight  for  an  increase  of  the  quantity 
and  improvement  of  the  quality  of  the  city's  water.  First, 
the  raising  of  the  dam  at  Great  Falls  was  secured,  next,  in 
order  to  supplement  this  work  and  give  it  practical  value 
by  an  enlargement  of  the  means  of  storing  and  distributing 
the  increased  volume  of  water,  a  committee  of  experts  was 
appointed  to  examine  into  the  feasibility  and  wisdom  of 
completing  the  tunnel  and  the  reservoir  near  Howard  Uni- 
versity. In  accordance  with  the  report  of  this  committee, 
which  was  strongly  indorsed  at  a  public  meeting  of  the 
Board  of  Trade,  Congress  at  its  last  session  appropriated 
$594,421  to  complete  the  tunnel,  and  some  work  has  already 
been  done  upon  it. 

An  effort  to  impose  water  meters  indiscriminately  upon  all 
water  consumers  was  met  and  defeated  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  in  a  fight  in  which  the  Board,  through  its 
committee  and  its  officers,  actively  participated.  Filtration 


12 

is  recommended  as  a  subject  worthy  of  municipal  thought 
and  skill,  and  a  welcome  is  tendered  in  advance  to  any  sys- 
tem of  purification  demonstrated  to  be  practical,  efficient 
and  reasonably  economical. 

The  Committee  on  River  and  Harbor  Improvements  pre- 
sents convincing  reasons  for  the  development  of  the  re- 
.claimed  Potomac  flats  as  a  park;  for  the  removal  of  the 
menace  of  the  present  Long  Bridge;  for  the  dredging  of 
the  Georgetown  and  Washington  channels,  and  for  the 
improvement  of  the  Anacostia  River  as  a  navigable  stream 
as  far  up  as  Benning  bridge,  and  the  deepening  of  its 
channel  and  reclamation  of  the  flats  above  that  point  as  a 
national  and  municipal  sanitary  measure.  Col.  Allen, 
United  States  Engineer  in  charge,  will  make  a  full  report,  on 
the  reassembling  of  Congress,  of  the  work  done  under  last 
session's  appropriation  of  $2,000  for  a  survey  of  the  Anacos- 
tia River,  and  a  project  for  its  improvement. 

COMMITTEES  WHICH  PROMOTE  BUSINESS  INTERESTS. 

The  material  welfare  of  the  city  is  also  promoted  by  other 
committees  which  deal  almost  exclusively  with  business  in- 
terests. 

The  Committee  on  Mercantile  Interests  reports  among 
the  interesting  and  important  events  of  the  year  in  the  local 
business  world  the  abolishing  of  the  trading  stamps,  which 
were  viewed  as  a  menace  by  mercantile  Washington.  The 
District  Court  of  Appeals  decided  that  the  issuance  of  these 
stamps  was  a  violation  of  the  local  law  against  gift  enter- 
prises. 

The  committee  notes  that  the  condition  of  business  at  the 
present  time  among  the  merchants  seems  to  be  much  better 
than  it  was  at  this  time  last  year.  The  war  undoubtedly 
has  been  a  great  benefit  to  Washington's  mercantile  inter- 
ests, causing  the  disbursement  here  of  a  large  amount  of 
money  which  would  not  otherwise  have  been  put  in  the  chan- 
nels of  Washington's  business. 

The  Committee  on  Commerce  and  Manufactures  reports 
that  it  favors  the  acquisition  of  the  water  power  at  Great 
Falls  by  the  Government  when,  and  only  when,  we  have 
proper  assurances  that  the  Government  will  immediately 
make  its  use  available  to  the  citizens  of  the  District  for  light- 


13 

in-  .UK!  manufacturing  purposes,  and  that  without  such  as- 
surances i IK-  mere  acquisition  of  the  land  and  water  rights 
as  proposed  would  have  only  ihe  injurious  effect  of  putting 
it  out  of  the  power  of  private  enterprise  to  make  proper  use 
of  such  water  power.  On  the  general  subject  of  the  advisa- 
bility of  encouraging  the  introduction  of  new  manufacturing 
plants  in  this  city  the  committee  points  out  that  the  smoke 
nuisance  can  be  easily  localized  at  an  unobjectionable  dis- 
tance by  the  conversion  and  distribution  of  power  in  the 
form  of  electrical  currents,  and  it  recommends  that,  as 
Washington  is  an  immense  and  important  center  of  distri- 
bution for  Government  supplies,  the  energies  of  the  Board 
l>e  devoted,  for  the  present  at  least,  to  urging  upon  Congress 
the  desirability  of  manufacturing  here  many  articles  for 
which  it  has  constant  and  imperative  use. 

The  Committee  on  Insurance  has  been  active  in  a  cam- 
paign against  "wildcat"  insurance  companies  operating  in 
the  District.  The  committee  estimates,  after  careful  in- 
quiry, that  there  are  policies  actually  in  force  in  this  Dis- 
trict aggregating  at  least  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars 
which  are  utterly  worthless,  and  on  which  not  a  penny  could 
be  recovered  in  case  of  loss.  Legislation  designed  to  cor- 
rect this  evil  was  proposed  by  the  committee,  indorsed  by 
the  Board  of  Trade,  and  reported  favorably  to  the  Senate 
from  the  District  committee.  Action  upon  it  is  hoped  at 
the  approaching  session  of  Congress. 

I  may  add  that  this  community  seeks  both  to  protect  itself 
iigainst  worthless  insurance  and  to  secure  good  insurance  at 
the  lowest  rates.  The  twofold  task  will  doubtless  receive 
the  careful  attention  this  winter  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  as 
well  as  of  the  insurance  committee. 

The  Committee  on  Public  Order  demonstrates  clearly  the 
urgent  need  of  an  increase  of  the  police  force.  Originally 
there  was  one  patrolman  to  about  1,000  people  in  the  Dis- 
trict; now  there  is  about  one  to  1,600,  and  in  one  instance  a 
single  patrolman  is  assigned  to  a  territory  including  thir- 
teen miles  of  beat. 

The  value  to  the  community  of  the  National  Guard  and 
the  importance  of  its  adequate  maintenance  are  pointed  out. 
Increased  appropriations,  especially  for  drills,  camps  of  in- 
struction and  practice  marches,  are  recommended;  also  an 


14 

appropriation  to  eriable  the  naval  battalion  to  utilize  the 
United  States  ship  Fern,  which  has  been  transferred  to  it 
for  its  use. 

I  may  with  propriety  add  that  this  committee  raised 
money  by  subscription  to  equip  the  National  Guard  and 
District  regiment  of  volunteers  for  active  service  in  the  war 
with  Spain.  The  Board  contributed  not  only  from  its 
means,  but  from  its  membership  to  the  national  defense, 
and  it  loaned  to  the  Government  to  command  the  District 
regiment  its  valued  secretary,  efficient  in  war  as  in  peace. 
The  record  of  the  District  of  Columbia  for  patriotic  public 
spirit,  begun  in  the  war  of  1812  and  continued  in  the  Civil 
War,  in  which  the  first  volunteers  came  from  the  District, 
whose  quota  was  more  largely  exceeded  than  that  of  any 
State  except  one,  is  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  a  new  and 
creditable  chapter  based  upon  the  history  of  the  war  with 
Spain.  The  volunteers  accepted  from  this  community  in 
the  recent  struggle  vastly  exceeded  the  District's  quota,  and 
the  prompt  and  enthusiastic  tender  of  service  by  the  Na- 
tional Guard  placed  the  local  force  at  the  disposal  of  the 
President  in  advance  of  all  competitors  for  that  honor.  'It 
was  not  their  fault  that  they  were  not  first  mustered  in  as 
volunteers.  The  fame  of  the  District  has  been  enhanced 
both  at  home  and  abroad  by  the  soldierly  bearing  of  the 
well-disciplined  and  elfective  regiment  which  the  Capital 
sent  to  Santiago. 

The  Committee  on  Bridges  reports  that  the  replacement  ot 
Long  Bridge  by  a  more  durable  structure  is  expected  as  a 
part  of  the  plan  of  terminal  improvement  by  the  railroads 
entering  the  city  from  the  South.  The  project  of  a  national 
memorial  bridge  across  the  Potomac  has  during  the  year 
received  the  enthusiastic  indorsement  of  the  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic,  and  the  committee  believes  that  by  earnest 
and  energetic  work  during  the  coming  session  of  Congress 
provision  for  the  construction  of  this  bridge  can  be  secured. 

I  heartily  indorse  the  recommendation  of  a  vigorous  cam- 
paign in  behalf  of  the  memorial  bridge. 

The  Committee  on  Taxation  and  Assessment  last  year  re- 
ported a  carefully  drawn  tax-sale  law,  which  was  indorsed 
by  the  Board  at  a  public  meeting  and  adopted  by  Congress. 
The  policy  of  the  Board  with  reference  to  the  rigid  uphold- 


15 

iiiji  of  the  ;ici  of  isTs  IIMS  been  declared  on  several  occa- 
sions during  the  lasi  year.  The  success  of  I  he  principle  of 
proportionate  contribution  for  which  the  Board  contends 
lias  appeared  not  only  negatively  in  the  defeat  of  hostile 
propositions,  but  affirmatively  in  the  elimination  of  section 
15  of  the  highway  act,  a  notable  gain,  which  must  be  re- 
tained to  the  fullest  extent  and  not  surrendered  in  the  slight- 
est particular. 

This  committee  in  its  report  demonstrates  that  the  amount 
raised  by  taxation  in  the  District  is  excessive,  and  that  the 
true  remedy  is  a  further  reduction  of  assessments. 

ABOLITION  OF  GRADE  CROSSINGS. 

A  municipal  improvement  of  great  importance — hope  of 
securing  which  at  an  early  date  is  held  out  by  the  Com- 
mittee on  Railroads — is  the  betterment  of  the  local  steam 
railroad  terminals  and  the  abolition  of  the  grade  crossings 
within  the  city  limits.  The  Board  of  Trade  early  laid 
down  the  principle  of  hostility  to  urban  grade  crossings.  A 
report  of  the  Committee  on  Bridges  in  1892,  dealing  with 
the  Long  Bridge  as  an  integral  part  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad's  terminal  system,  discussed  not  only  the  proposed 
improvements,  but  the  question  of  an  equitable  distribution 
of  the  cost  involved  in  abolishing  the  South  Washington 
grade  crossings.  The  Board  of  Trade  unanimously  adopted 
this  report,  and  its  statements  represent  the  position  of  the 
Board. 

It  favors  as  first  choice  the  abolition  of  grade  crossings 
by  the  building  of  an  arched  masonry  viaduct  of  the  Berlin 
i\] >e.  in  the  use  of  which  there  would  be  no  disturbance  of 
the  grade  of  streets  or  street  car  lines,  no  damage  to  prop- 
erty-owners from  long,  ugly  approaches  to  high  bridges  at 
certain  streets,  and  there  would  be  convenient  passage-way 
for  the  public  under  the  elevated  structure  at  numerous 
points. 

The  present  terminal  conditions  of  our  local  roads  are  in- 
jurious and  disgraceful  to  the  capital  of  the  American  Re- 
public. The  stations  compared  with  similar  structures  in 
Europe  are  inadequate  in  size,  awkwardly  arranged  and 
ugly.  Both  roads  sustain  a  series  of  death  trap  grade  cross- 
ings at  which  losses  of  life  and  injuries  to  limb  periodically 


16 

occur,  and  which  cause  financial  loss  to  the  city  through  the 
obstruction  to  traffic  and  travel  which  occurs  at  them. 

Both  roads  have,  it  is  understood,  agreed  with  the  Dis- 
trict authorities  upon  the  engineering  features  of  plans  of 
terminal  improvement,  and  the  necessary  legislation  will,  it 
is  expected,  be  asked  at  the  next  session  of  Congress.  The 
amount  of  the  contribution  to  be  exacted  from  the  District 
in  connection  wTith  the  improvement  of  the  Pennsylvania's 
terminal  system  is,  it  is  understood,  the  only  serious  issue 
between  the  railroad  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Commission- 
ers and  the  people  of  the  District  on  the  other. .  The  adopted 
report  of  the  Committee  on  Bridges,  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred, enumerates  certain  offsets  to  the  railroad's  bill 
against  the  public,  based  upon  the  grant  of  valuable  dona- 
tions of  public  property  for  the  use  and  occupation  of  the 
railroad,  which  have  been  enjoyed  in  the  past  or  whose 
future  enjoyment  is  involved  in  the  acceptance  of  the  rail- 
road's proposition  of  terminal  improvement.  In  the  nego- 
tiations upon  this  point  the  Commissioners  and  the  Board 
of  Trade  will  doubtless  co-operate,  to  the  end  that  all  the 
equities  of  the  District  may  be  preserved. 

When  the  local  roads  have  built  here  European  stations, 
covering  large  areas  of  ground — lofty,  imposing  and  orna- 
mental structures,  perhaps  with  fine  modern  hotels  in  the 
upper  stories,  as  in  London ;  when  they  have  abolished  their 
local  grade  crossings  and  run  rapid,  noiseless  trains  over  a 
Berlin  viaduct  or  a  girder  tunnel  in  their  course  through  the 
city,  and  when  both  cross  the  Potomac  to  southern  connec- 
tions on  handsome  and  substantial  bridges,  not  dams,  not 
only  \\ill  the  attractiveness,  safety  and  material  prosperity 
of  Washington  be  enhanced,  but  its  suburbs  wyill  enjoy  the 
rapid  transit  facilities  which  have  brought  such  benefits  and 
relief  from  congestion  to  Berlin.  The  railroads,  as  well  as 
the  public,  will  profit  by  this  improvement  of  their  service 
and  broadening  of  their  functions. 

STREET  RAILWAY  DEVELOPMENT. 

It  is  interesting  to  consider  the  development  of  the  city's 
sin-el  railroads  in  this  connection.  A  local  newspaper  de- 
scription in  1802  of  the  underground  electric  road  in  Buda- 


17 

Pesth,  which  urged  the  adoption  with  specified  improve- 
ments of  a  similar  system  in  Washington,  said: 

It  is  well  within  the  bounds  of  probability  that  Washington,  com- 
bining in  its  municipal  policy  the  push  and  progress  of  the  new  with 
the  solidity  and  safety  of  the  old  world,  will  in  the  near  future  be- 
come in  the  matter  of  local  rapid  transit  the  model  city  not  only  of 
America,  but  of  the  world,  to  which  students  from  all  parts  of  the 
•globe  will  resort  for  suggestions  concerning  the  latest  and  best  forms 
of  street  railway  motor. 

This  prophecy  is  being  rapidly  fulfilled.  The  Capital 
has  long  been  notable  as  the  only  city  in  the  world 
in  which  the  improved  grooved  rail  has  entirely  super- 
seded the  projecting  wheel-wrenching  "T"  rail.  The 
Buda-Pesth  underground  electric  system,  formerly  sneered 
at  as  commercially  impracticable,  is  being  extended  with 
the  suggested  improvements  over  the  entire  city.  Follow- 
ing the  action  of  the  Metropolitan,  this  system  has  during 
the  year  been  installed  upon  all  urban  branches,  of  the 
Capital  Traction  system.  The  stockholders  of  the  Columbia 
road  have  within  the  same  period  resolved  to  substitute  it 
for  the  cable.  The  Eckington  and  associated  roads,  forming 
the  City  and  Suburban  system,  will  use  the  underground 
electric  upon  their  city  lines,  beginning  with  the  Eckington. 
Even  in  the  case  of  the  Anacostia  road  there  is  promise  in 
connection  with  a  recent  change  in  ownership  and  control 
of  its  equipment  in  the  city  with  the  Buda-Pesth  system. 
The  most  important  improvement  remaining  to  be  accom- 
plished in  the  District  street  railroads  is  one  which  will  bind 
closer  together  by  absorption  or  by  universal  transfers  or  by 
common  use  of  tracks  the  suburban  and  urban  trunk  lines, 
so  that  one  may  travel  cheaply,  quickly  and  conveniently 
wherever  in  the  District  the  network  of  steel  tracks  ex- 
tends. 

THE  UNDERGROUND   CITY. 

The  successful  fight  in  Washington  against  the  overhead 
trolley  has  formed  part  of  a  campaign  against  overhead 
wires  in  general.  In  1888  Congress  passed  a  law  forbidding 
the  erection  of  any  additional  overhead  wires  within  the 
city  limits,  and  a  fight  to  retain  this  law  and  to  bury  under- 


18 

i:  round  the  overhead  wires  in  place  when  the  law  was  en- 
acted  has  raged  ever  since.  This  contention  will  continue 
until  a  general  conduit  system  has  been  established  upon  a 
wise  and  just  basis  which  will  perfect  underground  Wash- 
ington on  equal  terms  of  progress  with  the  development  of 
the  surface  city. 

COMMITTEES  FOR  INTELLECTUAL  AND  MORAL  DEVELOP 

WENT. 

Another  group  of  committees  promotes  prosperity  by  de- 
\eloping  the  city  intellectually  and  morally,  and  by  making 
it  attractive  as  an  educational,  artistic,  literary  and  scientific 
center. 

The  Committee  on  Public  Schools  reports  the  partial  sue 
cess  of  its  recommendation,  indorsed  at  a  public  meeting  of 
the  Board  of  Trade,  of  an  appropriation  for  two  manual 
training  school  buildings.  Congress  appropriated  $50,000 
for  one  building,  with  which  a  site  was  purchased,  and  the 
Commissioners  now  ask  of  Congress  an  additional  appro- 
priation of  $75,000  to  complete  this  building.  An  urgent 
appeal  is  made  for  an  increase  of  school  facilities,  so  that 
no  child  within  our  borders  shall  be  denied  or  abridged 
in  such  facilities.  The  committee  urges  an  appropriation 
of  $25.000  to  put  on  a  permanent  basis  the  kindergarten 
instruction  which  was  initiated,  largely  through  the  efforts 
of  members  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  by  a  small  appropriation 
at  the  last  session  of  Congress. 

I  will  add  that  at  the  public  meeting  of  the  Board  of 
Trade  last  winter,  at  which  public  school  matters  were  dis- 
cussed, stcreopticon  views  contrasting  the  manual  training 
facilities  of  Washington  with  those  of  other  cities  were  pre- 
sented with  excellent  effect.  This  experiment  was  so  suc- 
cessful and  the  argument  by  illustration  is  nowadays  so 
attractive  and  convincing  that  other  committees  of  thf 
Board  may  at  future  meetings  reasonably  resort  to  the  same 
means  of  impressing  some  wholesome  line  of  thought  vividly 
upon  the  public  mind. 

PUBLIC   LIBRARY. 

In  March,  1894,  the  Board  of  Trade  unanimously  and 
enthusiastically  adopted  the  report  of  its  recently  created 


19 

Committee  on  Public  Library.  This  document  set  forth  the 
important  function  as  an  educating  and  civilizing  agency 
of  the  tax-sustained  circulating  library  and  reading-room, 
accessible  at  night,  and  supplementing  for  children  and 
workingmen  the  public  school.  It  said: 

What  Carlyle  sought  for  each  English  county  town,  and  what 
many  English  and  American  villages  now  enjoy,  the  National  Capi- 
tal lacks  and  seeks  to  obtain.  It  is  fast  becoming  the  Republic's  c.lu- 
raiiuiial  -'filter.  Universities  are  founded  in  rapid  succession  within 
its  limits.  But  the  great  free  library  university,  for  those  whom  Lin- 
coln lovingly  called  the  common  people,  is  yet  to  be  created.  Ac- 
cording to  statistics  there  are  much  more  than  a  million  books  in  the 
semi-public  libraries  of  Washington— about  a  twentieth  of  all  in  the 
Republic,  and  when  these  have  been  apportioned  among  the  citizens, 
after  the  methods  of  statisticians,  it  appears  that  the  District  work- 
ingman  has  fourteen  times  as  many  public  books  as  the  average 
American.  And  the  only  difficulty  is  that  he  cannot  possibly  make 
any  use  of  them  whatsoever.  *  *  *  There  are  52  libraries  in  the 
District,  each  containing  over  1,000  volumes,  and  not  one  of  them  is 
a  free-lending  library,  with  a  reading-room  open  at  night  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  general  public.  Such  an  institution  is  the  most  urgent  need 
of  the  National  Capital.  Viewing  this  ocean  of  more  than  a  million 
books  spread  tantalizingly  before  them,  the  workingmen,  the  school 
children,  the  Government  clerks,  the  great  mass  of  the  citizens  of 
Washington,  thirsty  for  the  knowledge  which  comes  from  reading, 
may  well  exclaim  with  the  Ancient  Mariner:  "Water!  water  every- 
where, nor  any  drop  to  drink!" 

The  reproach  of  the  absence  of  a  true  public  library  in 
the  modern  sense  has  in  the  past  year  been  finally  taken 
from  the  National  Capital.  The  Board  of  Trade  committee 
pushed  steadily  forward  in  the  campaign  to  this  end,  and 
on  June  3,  1806,  secured  the  passage  of  a  law  by  Congress 
establishing  the  desired  public  library  as  a  supplement  of 
rlic  public  educational  system  of  the  District.  But  no  ap- 
propriation was  made  for  the  library's  maintenance,  and  a 
fresh  struggle  began  over  the  issue,  whether  the  infant  in- 
stitution should  be  starved  by  withholding  sustenance  or 
by  tendering  only  the  indigestible  and  ultimately  fatal  food 
of  support  exclusively  at  the  local  taxpayers'  expense,  as 
an  exception  to  the  organic  act  of  1878.  Finally  (June  30. 
IMISi  the  question  of  maintenance  was  settled  by  an  appro- 
pi  i.i  I  ion  for  library  uses  on  the  ordinary  municipal  basis  in 


20 

accordance  with  the  act  of  1878.  The  public  library,  sus- 
tained by  public  appropriation,  but  supplied  so  far  with 
books  exclusively  through  private  donations,  has  been 
housed  in  comfortable  and  accessible  quarters  at  1326  New 
York  avenue,  and  is  now  organized  and  beginning  opera- 
tions as  one  of  the  most  useful  and  beneficent  of  our  munici- 
pal institutions. 

While  there  is  good  ground  of  hearty  congratulation  over 
what  has  been  accomplished,  the  Board's  labor  of  love  in 
connection  with  the  library  is  not  yet  ended.  First,  books 
must  be  supplied  in  adequate  numbers.  Between  10,000 
and  12,000  volumes  have  been  donated,  and  nearly  |3,00() 
for  the  purchase  of  books.  A  memorial  fund  to  purchase 
scientific  periodicals  has  been  subscribed.  Public-spirited 
Washington  will,  without  doubt,  contribute  liberally  for 
this  noble  purpose. 

In  addition  to  the  effort  to  enlarge  the  resources  of  the 
library  by  private  subscriptions,  the  Board  will  doubtless 
vigorously  sustain  the  Commissioners  and  the  library  trus- 
tees in  an  endeavor  to  secure  liberal  library  appropriations, 
including  one  for  books,  and  also  legislation  seeking  to  se- 
cure for  the  library's  use  some  of  the  duplicates,  copyrighted 
or  uncopyrighted,  on  the  shelves  of  the  Congressional  Li- 
brary, and  the  miscellaneous  books  not  required  for  official 
reference  in  the  departmental  libraries. 

Another  great  gain  of  the  year  in  Washington's  intellec- 
tual development  has  been  the  opening  of  the  Congressional 
Library  at  night,  a  privilege  long  sought  in  vain  by  the 
people,  and  specifically  urged  upon  Congress  in  the  last  an- 
nual report  of  the  Public  Library  Committee.  On  October 
1,  1898,  the  doors  of  the  Congressional  Library  opened  for 
the  first  time  to  the  general  public  at  night,  and  with  this 
wonderful  collection  for  reference  uses,  and  the  Washington 
public  library  for  circulating  purposes,  Washington  may 
felicitate  itself  upon  sitting  down  to  a  literary  table  well 
filled  with  wholesome  digestibles,  a  treat  all  the  more  en- 
joyable because  of  the  contrast  with  the  Capital's  protracted 
period  of  literary  starvation. 

The  Committee  on  Charities  and  Corrections  reports  prog- 
ress in  the  campaign  for  the  creation  by  law  of  a  Board  of 
Charities  for  the  District,  and  urges  that  every  effort  be 


21 

made  to  secure  the  enactment  of  this  law  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment.  It  recommends  the  passage  of  the  bill  to 
provide  for  the  compulsory  support  of  children  by  parents, 
legislation  reducing  the  maximum  age  of  girls  admitted  to 
the  reform  school  from  18  to  14,  public  support  of  the  As- 
sociated Charities,  and  interest  in  the  housing  of  the  poor 
through  the  Sanitary  Improvement  Company.  The  com- 
mittee congratulates  the  community  upon  the  conversion,  at 
the  Commissioners'  suggestion,  of  the  periodically-appointed 
central  relief  committee  into  a  permanent  incorporation 
known  as  the  Citizens'  Relief  Association,  and  it  scrongly 
urges  that  steps  be  taken  to  secure  for  Washington,  in 
1900,  the  meeting  of  the  national  conference  of  charities 
and  correction. 

This  condensation  of  the  committee's  suggestions  indi- 
cates the  broad  scope  of  the  field  of  reformatory  opportuni- 
ties opened  before  the  District,  and  I  venture  to  emphasize 
the  hope  that  in  the  ensuing  year  Congress  may  crystallize 
into  law  some  or  all  of  the  forcible  recommendations  of  the 
committee. 

The  Board,  working  diligently  on  these  varied  lines 
through  its  officers  and  committees,  will  contribute  to  the 
development  of  the  Capital,  physically,  mentally  and  mor- 
ally, and  to  the  upbuilding  of  an  ideal  municipality  on  tho 
banks  of  the  Potomac. 

It  does  not  suffice,  however,  merely^  to  foster  the  various 
features  of  municipal  attractiveness  which  are  making 
Washington  an  object  lesson  to  the  city  builders  of  the 
world  in  certain  lines  of  development.  The  facts  concern- 
ing this  municipal  advancement  must  be  made  known  uni- 
versally. The  city's  light  is  not  to  be  hidden  under  a  bushel. 
One  of  the  objects  of  the  Board  of  Trade  is  to  disseminate 
information  concerning  the  attractions  of  Washington  to 
the  end  that  all  the  people  of  the  Republic  may  know  and 
appreciate  their  Capital  and  that  the  city's  population  of 
progressive  and  well-to-do  Americans  may  be  rapidly  en- 
larged and  its  material  prosperity  thc.-^by  promoted.  A 
special  committee  has  been  appointed  to  arrange  for  the 
publication  of  a  Washington  hand-book  to  be  prepared  by 
Secretary  IJarries.  The  latter's  absence  from  the  city  dur- 
ing his  active  service  as  colonel  of  the  District  Regiment  of 


22 

Volunteers  and  his  severe  illness  since  his  return  have 
prevented  the  issuance  up -to  this  time  of  the  proposed  book. 
This  work  is,  however,  it  is  understood,  in  an  advanced 
stage  of  preparation,  and  the  appearance  of  the  publication 
may  doubtless  be  expected  during  the  coming  year. 

Some  members  of  the  special  committee  on  the  Washing- 
ton hand-book  have  planned  to  exploit  the  beauties  of  Wash- 
ington, not  only  through  the  printed  and  illustrated  pages, 
but  through  stereopticon  views,  supplemented  by  the  com- 
ments of  one  or  more  lecturers,  who  are  to  do  missionary 
work  for  Washington  in  various  'sections  of  the  country.  If 
discreetly  managed,  this  project  should  produce  excellent 
results. 

THE   APPROACHING   CAMPAIGN. 

Xext  session's  legislative  campaign  of  the  Board  of  Trade 
will  be  as  important  as  any  upon  which  it  has  ever  entered. 
One  new  project  is  of  overwhelming  local  consequence. 

In  1895  the  Board  of  Trade  discussed,  at  a  public  meeting, 
the  necessity  of  a  new  code  of  laws  for  the  District,  and 
listened  to  able  and  convincing  addresses  on  the  subject  by 
judges  of  the  local  courts  and  others  learned  in  the  law. 
The  appointment  of  a  Legal  Committee  to  promote  codifica- 
tion was  authorized  by  the  Board  of  Trade.  The  Legal  Com- 
mittee afterward  reported  to  the  board  of  directors,  recom- 
mending that  Judge  W.  S.  Cox  be  invited  to  prepare  a 
codification  of  the  District  law,  and  that  the  Bar  Associa- 
tion be  invited  to  combine  in  the  invitation  to  Judge  Cox 
and  to  co-operate  in  bringing  the  movement  to  a  successful 
issue.  Judge  Cox  accepted  the  joint  invitation  of  the  Board 
of  Trade  and  the  Bar  Association,  and  for  three  years  he 
has  been  engaged  in  this  labor  of  love,  a  task  for  which  his 
profound  and  accurate  knowledge  of  the  law,  his  practical 
common-sense  knowledge  of  men  and  affairs,  and  his  cau- 
tious, conservative,  judicial  temperament  admirably  fit  him. 

A  few  days  ago  the  President  of  the  Board  received  from 
Judge  Cox  the  following  letter: 

Theodore  W.  Noyes,  Esq.,  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade: 

Dear  Sir -At  the  joint  request  of  the  Board  of  Trade  and  the  Bar 
Association,  I  have  been  occupied  for  some  time  past,  in  the  intervals 


23 

of  my  official  duties,  in  preparing  the  draft  of  a  code  of  law  for  the 
District. 

You  are  aware  that  we  have  never  had  in  the  District  a  systematic 
body  of  statute  law.  When  the  county  of  Washington  was  ceded  by 
Maryland  to  the  United  States,  the  law  in  that  county  consisted  of, 
first,  the  common  law  of  England;  second,  old  English  statutes  Jn 
force  in  the  colonies;  and,  third,  acts  of  the  Assembly  of  Maryland, 
passed  from  time  to  time  before  and  after  the  Revolution.  To  these 
were  added  acts  of  Congress,  passed  at  intervals  during  the  present 
century,  not  with  reference  to  any  general  system  of  legislation,  but 
to  meet  the  supposed  exigency  of  the  hour.  Many  of  these  were 
passed  without  reference  to  the  wishes  of  the  people  of  the  District, 
but  to  carry  out  the  theoretical  idea  of  members  of  Congress,  and 
were  so  ambiguous  and  ill-conceived  as  to  cause  much  uncertainty 
and  controversy.  In  1874  these  acts  of  Congress  were  collected 
together  under  the  title  of  "Revised  Statutes  Relative  to  the  Dis- 
trict." but  they  were  not  improved  and  derived  no  virtue  from  that 
circumstance. 

Our  laws,  as  a  whole,  may  be  said  to  be  half  a  century  behind 
those  of  the  States  in  their  adaptation  to  modern  business  and  social 
conditions. 

We  need,  in  the  first  place,  a  very  thorough  reform  in  judicial  pro- 
ceedings, whereby  needless  delays  and  circuitous  methods  may  be 
avoided  and  prompt  and  expeditious  remedies  administered.  We 
need  more  effective  relief  for  creditors,  especially  against  fraudulent 
debtors.  Our  system  of  conveyancing  should  be  simplified,  and  the 
law  of  estates  and  titles  divested  of  a  mass  of  technicalities,  the 
reasons  of  which  long  ceased  to  exist.  The  law  of  marriage  and 
divorce  needs  improvement,  and  the  rights  of  married  women  need 
to  be  better  denned.  The  law  of  corporations,  and  especially  the  law 
of  foreign  corporations  doing  business  in  the  District,  can  be  much 
improved.  The  law  as  to  the  rights  of  landlord  and  tenant  and  the 
liens  of  mechanics  and  others  needs  restatement.  The  law  of  crimes 
and  punishments  needs  overhauling,  as  well  as  our  criminal  pro- 
cedure. 

The  law  of  embezzlement  should  be  extended  and  all  fiduciaries 
who  betray  their  trusts  should  be  held  to  criminal  responsibility. 
There  are  numerous  technicalities  in  criminal  practice  which  con- 
stantly cause  a  denial  of  justice,  and  which  have  long  since  been 
abolished  in  the  States. 

These  changes  are  the  objects  which  I  have  aimed  at  in  preparing 
a  code.  I  have  taken  existing  laws  as  a  starting  point,  and  have 
endeavored  to  clear  up  obscurities  in  them  and  have  added  new 
features  borrowed  from  other  codes.  I  have  had  before  nie  tho  codes 
of  Maryland.  Virginia.  New  York  and  Ohio,  and  have  found  many 


24 

improvements  common  to  them  all,  which  ought  long  since  to  have 
been  introduced  here.  I  have  also  added  original  matter  suggested 
by  my  own  experience. 

Having  done  this  work  without  assistance  and  at  odd  moments,  I 
cannot  flatter  myself  that  it  is  free  from  errors  and  defects;  but  I 
think  that,  as  a  whole,  it  will  be  an  improvement  upon  the  existing 
condition  of  things,  and  it  would  be  desirable  to  have  it  enacted  into 
law,  even  if  it  shall  need  to  be  amended  afterward.  The  only  pos- 
sible way  of  having  this  done,  as  it  seems  to  me,  is  to  present  it  to 
Congress  in  a  complete  form,  with  the  indorsement  of  the  Board  of 
Trade  and  the  Bar  Association,  the  best  representatives  of  the  intelli- 
gent sentiment  of  the  people  of  the  District. 
Yours  very  respectfully, 

WALTER  S.  COX. 

October  20,  1898. 

This  letter  notes  the  completion  of  Judge  Cox's  formidable 
task.  Arrangements  have  been  made  by  the  Board  of 
Trade  and  the  Bar  Association  jointly  to  print  the  proposed 
code  in  order  that  it  may  be  examined  and  considered  prior 
to  its  adoption  by  the  Board  and  Bar  Association,  and  the 
urgent  request  for  its  enactment  into  law  by  Congress. 

IMPORTANCE   OF  CODIFICATION. 

No  other  legislation  to  be  brought  before  Congress  at  its 
approaching  session  is  so  important  to  the  District's  wel- 
fare as  this.  Other  bills  propose  alterations  of  or  addi- 
tions to  particular  statutes  upon  particular  points,  but  this 
codification  goes  over  the  entire  body  of  local  law,  lopping 
off  what  is  obsolete  or  obsolescent,  putting  in  statute  form 
court-made  law,  and  improving  and  strengthening  generally 
the  laws  by  which  we  are  governed. 

The  old  English  statutes  bequeathed  to  Maryland  were  in 
turn  handed  down  to  the  District,  and  Congress,  our  ex- 
clusive legislature  under  the  Constitution,  has  not  kept  our 
laws  up  to  the  mark  of  modern  progressive  legislation.  Its 
enactments  affecting  the  District  have  been  often  slipshod, 
and  always  unsystematic.  Complaint  of  Congressional  in- 
action as  onr  local  legislature  was  made  at  an  early  date. 
Mr.  J.  Eliot  in  his  "Historical  Sketches  of  the  Ten  Miles 
•Square,"  published  in  1830,  says  that  no  essential-  changes 
had  been  made  in  the  general  laws  or  in  their  administra- 


25 

lion  since  the  cession  of  the  District  by  Marvin  ml  and  Vir- 
ginia, and  that  the  citizens  were  governed  by  laws  as  they 
existed  thirty  years  previously,  which  had  accumulated  for 
generations,  many  of  them  barbarous,  long  since  wi-<-|y 
abrogated  by  the  States  in  which  they  prevailed,  but  still  in 
force  in  the  District.  The  author  adds  some  specimens  of 
these  curious  antiquated  laws.  Justice  Cole  and  other 
judges  at  the  Board  meeting  of  1895  demonstrated  that  the 
IMsirict  law  was  still  a  museum  of  antiquities.  Represen- 
t;iii\c  (Jrosvenor  at  an  Arlington  meeting  of  the  Board 
afterward  dangled  in  our  faces  some  statutory  antediluvian 
monstrosity  at  that  date  still  living  and  flourishing  in  the 
District,  and  pledged  himself,  at  the  proper  time,  to  assist 
vigorously  in  relieving  the  District  of  these  fossil  statutes. 

The  first  "distinct  step  toward  securing  a  consistent  sys- 
tem of  local  law  was  taken  when  by  authority  of  Congress 
a  compilation  of  the  existing  statutes  was  made.  This  com- 
pilation co-operates  with  the  labors  of  successive  revisers 
or  would-be  codifiers  of  our  statutes  from  the  time  of 
''ranch  in  exposing  to  our  legislature  the  defects,  absurdi- 
ties and  barbarities  of  our  statutes. 

Surely  now  is  the  accepted  time  to  act.  The  fate  which 
has  overtaken  previous  attempts  at  codification,  the  legis- 
lative inaction  which  has  so  often  wasted  the  results  of  years 
of  intelligent  labor,  make  me  especially  solicitous  that 
through  no  fault  of  our  own  shall  similar  misfortune  befall 
the  present  effort.  Let  us  stand  together  in  a  campaign  for 
the  speedy  passage  of  this  code.  If,  in  order  to  do  so,  any  of 
us  temporarily  surrender  individual  opinion  concerning  some 
debatable  point  of  legislation,  the  sacrifice  should  be  cheer- 
fully made  in  the  general  interest,  and  reward  will  be  found 
through  participation  in  the  advantages  enjoyed  by  the  en- 
tire community  through  the  code  as  a  whole. 

The  first  measure  taken  up  this  winter  by  the  Board  for 
a  public  meeting  should,  I  suggest,  be  the  code,  and  I  hope 
that  the  coining  session  of  Congress  may  suffice  to  win  for 
the  District  the  blessings  to  flow  from  the  adoption  of  the 
code  and  to  relieve  the  Capital  from  the  throttling  burden 
of  ancient  laws  now  fastened  upon  its  neck,  like  the  Old 
Man  of  the  Sea  on  the  shoulders  of  Sinbad. 

If  success  meets  the  movement.  Judge  Cox,  in  whom  the 


26 

whole  community  feels  confidence,  will  have  crowned  a  long 
life  of  public  usefulness  by  a  monumental  labor  which  will 
brin<;  untold  benefit  to  the  community,  high  and  deserved 
honor  to  the  codifier,  and  transform  conditions  surrounding 
District  concerns  into  modern  shape,  conducive  to  the  prog- 
ress and  prosperity  of  the  nation's  city. 

MAINTENANCE   OF   THE   ORGANIC   ACT. 

Another  feature  of  the  legislative  campaign  for  the  Dis- 
trict's welfare  of  vast  importance  is  the  constant  struggle 
for  the  maintenance  intact  of  the  organic  act.  This  prin- 
ciple will  come  into  question  at  the  approaching  session  in 
three  ways: 

1.  In  the  extension  of  suburban  streets.     In  amending 
the  highway  act  at  its  last  session,  Congress  repealed  sec- 
tion 15  and  thereby  condemned  the  proposal  embodied  in 
the  highway  law  to  extend  the  grand  national  plan  of  the 
original  city  over  the  misfit  subdivisions  and  unsubdivided 
land  of  the  suburbs  entirely  at  local  expense.     But  hardly  is 
the  District  rid  of  the  pernicious  provisions  of  section  15 
when  legislation  is  proposed,  in  various  bills,  which  will  n- 
enact,  piecemeal,  in  the  case  of  successive  single  streets,  the 
iniquitous  principle  of  exclusive  local  contributions  for  sub- 
urban street  condemnation  and  improvement  which  Con- 
gress has  just  abolished  in  its  application  to  the  comprehen- 
sive extension  of  Washington's  streets  collectively. 

2.  The  principle  needs  to  be  guarded  in  every  appropria- 
tion which  disburses  the  revenues  of  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia. 

3.  The  principle  is  brought  in  question  by  propositions  to 
raise  the  standard  of  local  tax  assessment  and  to  increase 
the  District's  burden  of  taxation. 

A  pamphlet  containing  an  abstract  of  arguments  on  this 
subject  by  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade  before  vari- 
ous committees  of  Congress  at  the  last  session  has  been  or- 
dered to  be  printed  by  the  directors  and  will  be  issued  for 
distribution  before  the  convening  of  Congress.  The  over- 
whelming importance  of  this  branch  of  the  District's  cam- 
paign for  justice  is  fully  recognized  and  the  fight  along 
these  lines  will  undoubtedly  be  vigorously  contested. 

The  Board  will  also  doubtless  be  active  in  pushing  for- 


27 

ward  public;  projects  which  in  1898  have  taken  so  excellen: 
a  start:  (a)  Endowment  and  development  of  the  public 
library;  (b)  the  securing  of  more  and  better  water  and  the 
defeat  of  meter  projects  which  tend  to  limit  the  use  and  in- 
crease the  cost  of  the  water  supply;  (c)  reclamation  of  the 
Anacostia  flats;  (d)  development  of  manual  training  schools; 
(e)  speedy  completion  of  comprehensive  system  of  sewage 
disposal. 

THE  CITY'S  CENTENNIAL. 

Congress  at  the  coming  session  will  be  asked  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  in  his  annual  message,  to  make 
legislative  provision  for  the  appointment  of  a  commission, 
representing  the  House,  Senate,  the  States  of  the  Union, 
and  the  District  of  Columbia,  to  arrange  an  appropriate 
celebration  in  1900  of  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the 
establishment  of  the  seat  of  government  in  Washington. 
This  occasion,  so  interesting  and  so  important  both  nation- 
ally and  locally,  deserves  and  will  doubtless  receive  the 
earnest  and  thoughtful  attention  of  Congress,  the  nation's 
and  the  District's  legislature.  It  may  safely  be  assumed 
that  the  Hoard  of  Trade  will  be  active,  both  in  securing  ap- 
propriate legislation  in  the  matter  and  in  contributing 
directly  by  its  labors  to  the  success  of  the  enterprise. 

LOOKING   FORWARD. 

The  future  upon  which  the  Capital  is  about  to  enter  is  one 
of  brilliant  promise.  Reference  has  been  made  to  the  bene- 
ficial effect  of  the  war  with  Spain  upon  Washington's  busi- 
ness interests.  This  benefit  is  profounder  and  farther-reach- 
ing than  is  usually  imagined.  It  is  not  confined  to  the  tem- 
porary increase  of  business  in  a  few  lines  of  local  trade,  due 
to  the  physical  presence  of  many  soldiers.  The  benefit  is 
permanent  and  its  causes  are  deep-rooted. 

The  National  Capital  is  the  heart  of  the  nation,  from 
which  issues  and  circulates  the  life-giving  element,  per- 
meating with  national  influence  and  power  the  whole  of  the 
body  politic.  The  greater  the  current  of  national  life,  the 
larger  and  stronger  the  heart,  the  muscle  which  sends  the 
Republic's  life-blood  pulsing  through  its  veins.  As  the  body 
politic  expats  and  puts  forth  its  strength,  the  national 


heart  grows  in  proportion.  Thus  Porto  Rico,  Cuba  and  the 
Philippines,  in  enlarging  the  Republic  and  broadening  the 
scope  of  national  government,  increase  also  the  official  ma- 
chinery operated  here,  and  develop  the  Government's  city. 

The  National  Capital  is  not  only  the  heart,  but  the  soul,  of 
the  nation,  the  peculiar  abiding  place  of  the  spirit  of  nation- 
ality. 

The  legends  of  every  imaginative  people  deal  in  some 
fashion  with  the  fancy  of  the  interwoven  fates  of  widely 
differing  individuals,  of  a  crossing  of  life  lines  between 
them,  so  that  the  prosperity  or  adversity,  the  sickness  or 
death  of  one  of  the  affinities  is  faithfully  reflected  and  re- 
produced in  the  other,  however  separated  in  space,  in  age  or 
conditions  of  life  they  may  be.  The  Republic  and  its  cap- 
ital, the  city  created,  largely  owned  and  exclusively  con- 
trolled by  the  nation,  are  such  affinities.  Their  common  life 
line  is  the  national  patriotic  sentiment.  Strengthen  the 
spirit  of  American  nationality  and  the  Nation  waxes 
stronger  and  the  Capital  responds  with  corresponding 
growth.  Wound  the  sentiment  of  nationality  and  both  Cap- 
ital and  Nation  languish;  destroy  it  and  they  die. 

As  the  blood  of  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  church,  so  the 
blood  of  the  patriots  is  the  seed  of  American  national  senti- 
ment and  of  the  National  Capital-  which  embodies  this  senti- 
ment. The  bloodshed  of  the  Revolution  created  the  Federal 
Union  and  the  Capital.  The  bloodshed  of  the  Civil  War  de- 
veloped a  nation  and  a  national  city.  The  bloodshed  of  the 
war  with  Spain  washes  out  all  traces  of  the  civil  struggle,  re- 
unites the  national  elements,  expands  and  promotes  the 
nation  and  the  nation's  city. 

For  the  new  America  there  is  to  be  a  new  Washington. 
There  can  be  no  genuine  expansion  of  the  Republic  which 
does  not  show  forth  as  in  an  index  in  the  Republic's  city. 
So,  likewise,  prosperity  in  the  Federal  District  means  that 
the  wrhole  nation  prospers  and  develops  more  and  more  from 
day  to  day.  Their  life  lines  being  interwoven  no  one  may 
savagely  cut  at  one  without  injury  to  the  other;  and  he  who 
fosters  the  one  builds  up  the  other,  and  in  a  two-fold  capac- 
ity meets  the  requirements  and  enjoys  the  patriotic  privileges 
of  a  loyal  and  enthusiastic  American. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


Form  L9-Series  4939 


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